The Tale of the Huntress
by Mara-DragonMaster
Summary: The Avengers thought they would have a break. They'd saved the universe, after all. But then a portal opens. Ice Wolves attack, a strange woman with insane powers is causing panic, and an Ice Queen is after them. Especially the Odinson. The team discovers that Thor has a deeply buried, painful secret that even he cannot remember, and isn't sure he wants to. (adopted from Wanli8970)
1. Chapter 1

_**Formerly "Avengers: The Tale of the Huntress", by Wanli8970**_

_**So before we begin, I just want to say thank you to Wanli8970 ( u/6596076) for allowing me to adopt this story. I just fell in love with it and wanted to know what happened next! So you know what we do here when we want to know what happened next. We write it. They were super amazing at messaging back and forth with me and giving me their notes for the story. I am honored and privileged. **_

_**Of course, then Infinity War and the Endgame came out, and so I had to rework what I had plotted because I saw a chance to change one or two things that just broke my heart. I love the movies to pieces, but my heart was just shattered. **_

_**So, without further ado, I give you... The Tale of the Huntress. **_

* * *

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER ONE

* * *

"Thor, behind you!" Tony's voice sounded across the battlefield a split second after white explosions blasted the wolves off of him.

Thor sat up and sucked in a deep breath. "Thanks!"

Clint spun and zapped another arrow through a wolf's eye. "What are these things?" he shouted.

Thor did not have time to answer, set upon once again by three of the enormous beasts. Stormbreaker sang through the air in a sharp circle, flying round and round him, crushing the skulls of every wolf it hit until he called it back.

He had returned from his travels with the Guardians to visit with his friends and catch up on all that had happened during the year he'd been gone, when a great explosion from somewhere deep in the woods had made Tony's cabin shake, and they had gone to investigate. What they had found was a strange fog, rolling through the trees, freezing and thick. From the fog the wolves had attacked, the mist clinging and seeping from their dark blue fur, their leathery faces cruel and snarling. They were twice the size of any earth wolf, and their claws twice as long and sharp.

Thor knew what they were.

But they were supposed to be extinct.

He'd barely had time to shout a warning before it was a mass of chaos and deafening roars and battling.

Steve was there, to visit his old friends, and he was barely holding his own with Mjolnir. Banner was there in his hulk form, bashing two wolves together till they looked like stuffed animals that had been unstuffed, then he threw them aside and let out a deafening roar and charged into the thick of them, where they were piling up on Thor.

"There's too many of them!" Tony yelled, pulsors shooting at a wolf hanging onto his leg. The metal suit began to crunch under the monstrous teeth.

Thor bellowed, his skin crackling and his eyes turning white. Leaping into the air he called upon the lightning swirling in the clouds above, and sent it down. There was an explosion of light, a dozen howls and screams, and then it was all dark and still. Thor landed and went to his knees, Stormbreaker ready, his eyes scanning the surrounding trees.

There was nothing.

The wolves lay scattered around them, charred and dead. The mist that had continually rolled out of their fur was fading away.

"Okay," Clint said breathlessly, pushing himself up with a groan. "You want to explain what these things are and why they came from the Bifrost? Are they Asgardian?"

Thor shook his head. "I have no idea – they are not of Asgard." He stood and walked over to one of the giant carcasses, and poked at it with his boot. "When I was a child, my father went after them throughout the realms and destroyed them."

"Yeah, well," Tony landed next to them and his helmet deactivated, showing his face. "We've seen how well that's worked out in the past. No offense."

Thor frowned, remembering how often his father had claimed to 'destroy' a race, only for that race to show up again ages later, alive and strong.

Grimacing, Thor pulled the hair-tie from his ruined ponytail, held it in his teeth, and smoothed his hair back and retied it. Then he lifted Stormbreaker again, and crouched, staring at the corpse. After a moment he rose and walked over to the site of the original explosion, the one that had brought them out in the first place. Clambering over fallen logs and roots, moving up the hill, he reached a scorched piece of earth. "Captain!"

The others came over to him and looked down.

The scorches were in a pattern, similar to the one the Bifrost used to make, and yet it was incredibly different.

Hulk tipped his head. "That pattern almost looks like a – bunch of ice crystals."

"What is this, Thor?" Tony asked, his eyes suddenly dark and flat. "What new space problem are we going to have to deal with?"

"I don't know, Stark." Thor swore, lifting and dropping his hands at his sides helplessly.

Steve noticed his expression, and tilted his head, stepping closer. "What is it, Thor?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know…" Thor murmured, his brows pulled and dark. He opened and closed his fingers nervously, and shifted his weight from foot to foot.

Steve frowned, suddenly concerned. They had all been through the ringer the last few years, and none of them more than Thor. His friend was looking a little better than he had been a year ago: his beard was trimmed close, his hair was still a bit tangled but at least pulled back, and he'd cut back significantly on his drinking, if his diminished belly was any indication. He looked comfortable in his jeans and t-shirt and hooded, zippered sweatshirt, but he still wasn't the Thor he'd first met all those years ago. Steve very much doubted he'd ever be that Thor again, and that was all right. None of them would ever be who they were before. Not after what they'd been through.

So now he noticed the agitation and moved closer. "Hey," he murmured. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Thor said absently, his brows still dark with thought. "It's just…" he trailed off, staring at the scorched earth. "I feel like I've seen those before. Those markings, exactly. I feel like I should know them… but I can't remember."

"Well," Tony pursed his lips. "You _are_ almost two thousand years old."

"One thousand five hundred and six."

"Really?" Tony blinked. "I'm… _shocked_ that you haven't lost count. Are you sure?"

Steve rolled his eyes.

"My point is, that's a lot of years, and you are allowed to forget a thing or two."

"It's not like that." Thor said, and his dark expression made them pause. "I _should know_. But it's…" His face twisted, like he was probing a tooth, and then he shook his head. "I can't remember."

* * *

The stars and darkness and colors and planets spun around her at such dizzying speed that she could only pray she didn't hit anything. It made her stomach leap into her throat, made her ears plug, made her eyes burn, made her head reel… She closed her eyes and begged for it to end, begged to die, begged to land, begged for it to _just stop_!

Begged the Allfathers that her little brothers were safe.

That _she_ hadn't gotten them.

Darkness crept in around her vision. Bile rose in her throat. Her heart hammered faster, too fast, and she felt pain and panic…

And then she crashed, bouncing, cratering, dust and rubble scattering around her, peltering her unresponsive form.

And then all was still, except for the distant sound of a siren.


	2. Chapter 2

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER TWO

* * *

Awareness came to her in a flash, in blinding lights and cold and high pitched sounds and voices. She threw her head up, brilliant crimson hair snapping, and in an instant she was crouched and ready for battle, her arm held out behind her, her brown-feathered cloak growing warm and weightless in anticipation. Her head snapped around, her turquoise eyes flashing from face to face and thing to thing. Everything was happening in slow motion – people waiting on stone walks, lights on a pole glowing brilliant green, a woman screaming and a man rushing forward, hands outstretched.

A great metal carriage, its sides gleaming in the many lights, sped towards her at a terrifying speed. It was as large as a bilgesnipe, and was too close to stop in time or for her to move.

She slammed her arms together, crossed, and felt the familiar rush of warmth.

There was an impact that never hit her, a screeching of metal that flowed over the top of her, and then it was silent.

Someone screamed. People shouted. A horn blared without stopping. The siren she had heard before passing out was louder now, and she saw another metal carriage with blinding red and blue lights flashing. A man leapt from it, and people shouted and pointed at her and they were frightened.

This was not her home.

Fear lanced through her. What had happened? Where was she? Where were her brothers? She had to get home, had to make sure they had made it, that Skadi had not gotten them.

If Skadi had taken her little brothers, after throwing her out into oblivion…

"Please," she called, rising to her feet with her hands open and out. "I mean no harm… I need help…"

"Look at what she did!"

"Heaven help us, it's another one!"

"She flipped that car, just hit it and crashed it and killed that man!"

"ANOTHER ALIEN!"

The words hurt.

The cop pulled his gun and held it trained on her, but his eyes were cautious. "Maam, I need you to come with me."

"I can't. I have to get home." She moved back. "Where am I?"

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you that, miss alien." The cop said. "Now stop moving, and put your hands on your head."

He wanted to capture her.

That was not going to happen.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, and threw her hands down.

The electrical lines exploded in showers of blinding sparks.

People screamed and ducked, trying to escape the wires that whipped down and danced along the ground, sparking and snapping. The cop tried to help people move away.

A golden hawk shot into the air and disappeared in the dark sky.

She flew and flew till she was far enough away from the scene she had caused. Flew and flew, looking and looking, trying to figure out where she was. None of this was familiar, none of it. It wasn't any of the Nine Realms, and her throat began to grow tight with panic.

The city faded into the distance, and the forests and hills rose beneath her, roads snaking their way across the land. Another town came into view, and she descended quickly, landing in a grove of trees, her talons digging into the dirt and her wings fluttering and folding. She rose to her full height and brushed her crimson hair from her face.

Perhaps she could find some help here.

Thinking back to the clothing of the people she'd seen, she removed her cloak and folding it and tucked it into her bag. None of them had been wearing capes or cloaks, and she must fit in.

With a deep breath, she stepped out of the trees and onto a street.

This was not a town. This was a bustling metropolis, with activity and crowds and lights even at this time of night. For the most part the people seemed friendly, or at least unaggressive. She walked and walked, her feet melting the snow beneath them… a good thing, else she would have left scorch marks.

She was never sure why her feet did that.

It was why her father had all the floors of the palace made of stone.

Someone ahead of her folded up something and threw it into a bin. A waste bin. But the thing they'd thrown was paper. It looked like a pamphlet of some sort? Or a information paper? She hurried over and snatched it up, finding it to be quite large when unfolded and made of several sheets of paper, with pictures printed on it and words upon words. A paper to communicate events across this land, it seemed. She scanned the words, found a date…

December 15, 2024.

The language was English.

This was Earth.

Her stomach rolled and she backed up till she hit a building, and slid down its rough surface to the stone walkway beneath her.

She was on Earth, one thousand four hundred and ninety-four years in the future.

Her breaths came in gasps, her throat constricting till it hurt, and then constricting some more. Her eyes stung and grew hot, and she wished the tears would just fall, but they didn't.

"Hey – are you okay?"

People were noticing her. A group of young women had stopped, and one of them was cautiously stepping forward, concerned.

"Yes." She forced a grin, and stood up, fingers white-knuckled in the paper. "I'm fine. Just had a lot happen today, that's all."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. But… may I ask, do you have warriors here?"

The young woman's brow crinkled. "Warriors?"

"Yes – warriors? Those who give aid?"

"Like… police?"

Police. She turned that word over in her mind, and recalled the word on the side of the car with the flashing red and blue lights. She shook her head. "No. Never mind," she smiled again. "Thank you."

Before they could ask more she turned and hurried down the walkway, pushing her hair behind her ear, looking round and round.

The people before had called her an alien. They had been frightened because she was 'another alien.' She could hardly believe that the man – the police? – was the one to take care of something like that. There must be another group, somewhere. She had to find them, she had to convince them she was just lost and wanted to get home.

The buildings were beautiful. They rose high into the sky, filled with a thousand twinkling, warm lights. Snow fell down around the bustling figures, huddled in their coats and scarves. The streets were lined with those strange metal carriages, their wheels spinning by magic, lights shining like beacons from the front to guide their path.

Music caught her ear. Soft caroling, voices rising and falling in beautiful harmony together. She turned her head and began to walk, looking for the source of the lovely melody, and when she turned a corner she met an explosion of colors. Before her was a crowd of people, all gathered around an enormous pine tree that was covered with glorious lights and shining ornaments. An eight pointed star rested at the top, glowing with bright rays of silver. She could almost feel the peace it radiated, and she looked at it without blinking, bathing in its glow. For all the magnificence of her father's palace, she had never seen a things more beautiful than this.

At the base of the tree there was a small group of people facing the crowd, all dressed in similar clothing, following the direction of a person holding a stick, which they waved and moved in rhythm before them. The music was lovely, speaking of peace and love and holiness, and she felt some of her tension melt away.

A celebration. This was a celebration. It explained the things she had seen in some of the windows she'd passed. Some sort of Winter Celebration.

A sign was near the singers. Donations… for those still recovering from … the snap? She wondered what that was.

The singing ended, and the woman who had directed turned to face the crowd. "Thank you." She said when the applause had ended. "As many of you know, it has been more than a year since the Avengers saved our world and brought back all of our loved ones."

The crowd applauded.

"Unfortunately, there are still many people whose lives have been uprooted and forever changed. Homes gone, families moved on. So much is still uncertain. People are still trying to fix their lives. So we are hosting a fundraiser, to help those people who are in desperate need, and everything you give tonight will go towards that fund…"

She stopped listening. She turned instead to someone in the crowd. "Who are the Avengers?"

He stared at her in disbelief. "You don't know?" he asked, skeptically.

She shook her head. "I've been in some trouble lately," she said, choosing her words carefully. "There's a lot I don't know right now."

"Mm. Well, I suppose this last year has been a bit crazy for us all, hasn't it? You must be one of the Dusted?"

She did know what a Dusted was, and held her tongue. It was all right, because he kept on talking.

"The Avengers, I hold them in great respect. Just like the Veterans of old. Risked everything, they did, to stop that madman and bring back out loved ones. He had a machine, a Gauntlet, they call it, that had the ability to wipe out anyone anywhere, and he did. But the Avengers, they never stopped. We all thought they were mutants, or dangerous, but turns out God just prepped them for this. He knew what was coming, and gave us the right people for the job. Took them five years, but they got him. That Thanos. Stopped him, took back his Gauntlet, and undid what he did. Brought everyone back. Don't know how it worked. I'm not a scientist, but I'm glad it did. I got my Carol back. That's all that matters to me."

Her heart fluttered with hope. "These Avengers… where are they? Where can I find them?"

He laughed. "If we all knew, they'd never know a moment's peace."

"Someone must know." She insisted.

"Well, they used to be over in Stark Tower over there." He pointed off in a vague direction. "But no one knows anymore where they've gone. They're always there when we need help, though, so they're not gone."

She muttered her thanks and turned and snaked her way through the crowd. She had a place to start.

Her fear began to bubble up again, fear for her brothers, for what had happened. It had been so many years. So, so many years. What if she couldn't get home? What if she _could_ get home, only to find Skadi had done as she'd threatened?

She'd be one thousand four hundred and ninety-four years too late to do anything about it. To save anyone.

A warmth started down her core, filling her limbs, rushing with her veins, her mind and sight going hazy. Panic snapped through her, and she fought it, fought it with all her strength – she _couldn__'__t_ have an episode now! Couldn't lose her control!

She had to find the Avengers!

* * *

At Tony's house, things were far less hopeful. They had brought one of the corpses back with them, and Banner was currently studying it.

"You have to clean all this up before Pepper finds it." Tony said, his nose wrinkled, pointing at the goo and mucus dripping from the carcass on his table to the floor.

"Mm hm." Banner murmured, engrossed in his work.

"So you said these aren't from Asgard." Clint said, pacing. He stopped in front of Thor and pointed. "But someone had to have sent them. Unless they can open portals on their own."

"No," Thor shook his head, glancing at the fridge and clutching his glass of ice water resolutely. "They can't."

"I know that." Clint drawled. "Hence the conclusion that someone must have sent them."

Steve studied his feet, sitting backwards on a kitchen chair, his arms resting on the top of it.

"You know," Tony laughed, shaking his finger as he walked back and forth in agitation. "Every time you come down here, Point Break, you bring something with you."

"This was not my doing!" Thor protested, gesturing at the blue monster wolf on Tony's table.

"Of course not! None of it is ever your fault!" Tony exclaimed, spreading his arms out. "Things just always magically happen whenever you're around!"

"Tony." Steve warned tiredly.

"No, we never had any problems with outer space goons and monsters until you showed up." Tony's eyes were too big, his movements too sharp. "We just got _done_ with the last big bad guy. And, I don't know, I thought we'd have maybe a little break? Every time you come here you bring some kind of death and destruction…"

"Tony!" Steve barked, rising to his feet.

"No, Captain. He's right." Thor looked weary, his gaze on Tony too old and ancient and tired for someone who still looked so young.

Tony, his outburst done, deflated and closed his eyes.

Clint sighed and went to the fridge, digging out a beer.

Banner leaned over the blue beast. "Tony, come on, man…" he whispered. "Don't you think that was a little harsh?"

Tony's lips thinned. "I'm only _just_ getting my life back to normal." He murmured, and rubbed his forehead. "I just… I thought we were done." The floor creaked, and he looked up to see Thor disappear through his front door. He sighed.

Steve followed the Asgardian onto the porch. "You all right?"

Thor started, saw who it was, and went back to leaning on the porch rail. "I'm fine, Captain."

"Steve, Thor. Call me Steve. I think we're way past formalities and titles now, don't you?"

Thor stared out into the blackness.

"You know he didn't mean it. What he said." Steve crossed his arms and settled his stance, staring off into the dark that held his friend's attention.

"I know. He's scared, and rightfully so." Thor sniffed and straightened, pulling the hood of his sweatshirt up and zipping it closed. His breath fogged the air before him. "That's not what is troubling me."

Steve gave him a sideways glance.

"Mostly." Thor amended, crossing his arms to keep the winter cold at bay. He was not going to admit that Tony's words had echoed his own personal fears and guilt, that if he wouldn't come here bad things wouldn't keep happening.

"It's not your fault." Steve whispered. "None of it. What happened would have happened no matter what. And without you, we might not have been able to fix it."

Thor swallowed tightly. He still couldn't hear The Name without feeling his chest go tight and his mind scatter in fear. It used to be panic, so he supposed he was getting marginally better, but it still haunted his dreams and made him break out in a cold sweat.

"What is it that's troubling you?"

Thor exhaled and fidgeted. "When I look at those markings… at those wolves…" he shook his head, staring out into the blackness. "It feels as though a lifetime of pain that I have tried to ignore has come back. It feels as though I know them, but when I try to remember there is a wall, and behind that wall there is something… but there is such pain…" he kicked at the snow on the porch, gritting his teeth, unsure how to explain.

But Steve was nodding, thoughtful. "You think you've had a memory blocked?"

Thor circled his lips and blew out forcefully. He didn't want to believe it, didn't want to even think it, but his father had wiped out the memory of Hela.

What if Odin had wiped something from his memory?

And if so, what?

"You'll remember." Steve said confidently, and patted Thor's shoulder. "Maybe Strange can help you."

"Maybe."

"Guys," Clint poked his head out the door. "You're gonna want to see this."

Tony was on the phone with Fury, and Banner was holding the tv remote, staring in shock at the screen. A reporter spoke to the camera, while behind her the street was in chaos. A car was upside down and half crushed, while power lines dangled and sparked and emergency vehicles were everywhere. The road itself was gouged and torn up as if a meteor had hit it.

"_Earlier tonight a terrible scene occurred, as you can see behind me. One man is dead, and three people injured. Witnesses claim it was a woman who did this. They say that she fell out of the sky into the path of an oncoming car, and that she made a forcefield and crushed the car and flipped it, killing the driver. When police tried to apprehend her, she made the power lines explode, injuring three more people, and then disappeared. Law enforcement is currently looking for her whereabouts, and ask that if you see this woman, to please call them directly.__"_

A picture, blurry and not very good, was put on the screen. Probably from someone's cell phone. It showed a woman in a brown cape, with brilliant red hair.

"Life just keeps getting more and more interesting, doesn't it?" Tony quipped.


	3. Chapter 3

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER THREE

* * *

It happened too fast.

A matter of moments, really.

_One._

He barreled into his brother, arms wrapped around him, rolling them out of the way as the Hulk's roar deafened their ears.

_Two._

Safe and hidden in the shadows he shot to his knees and began to desperately work, creating a perfect double. "Stay still," he hissed, squashing the fear that rose up at the sight of Thor's bloody face. Blood still dripped from his brother's mouth, and he could hardly move. Still Thor had fight in him. Still he pushed himself up on shaking arms, eye flashing, and Loki heard Hulk's whine and knew they were all out of time.

_Three._

Thor was suddenly on his feet and rushing forward to the Hulk's defense, trying to save his friend, but it was hopeless. Loki gritted his teeth, hurrying to finish the double, creating its words and actions. It _might_ cause enough of a distraction for him to free his brother from his metal bonds and for them to escape. It was their only chance.

_Four._

It was done. The double was perfect, ready to step out, ready to stall for time with fancy words, ready to buy them their precious time, and Loki stood and spun.

_Five._

A million colors blinded him and hit him with all the force of Mjolnir, and the Bifrost carried him away with the speed of light, and within seconds he was gone, gone, far from death and his brother.

_Six. _

"NO!" He screamed, spinning and flailing, his voice tearing out of him, scraping his heart and his throat raw. "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!"

He'd just gotten his brother back, they'd finally been side by side again after all these years, he'd finally found where he'd belonged… _anywhere_, as long as it was at Thor's side…

He spun, hit something solid and green, and saw Hulk's dazed face, eyes rolling. Hope filled him.

If the green monster was here, perhaps his brother was too…?

"Hulk!" He shouted, and grabbed the giant green head. "Banner! Wake up!" He slapped the rock-like cheek.

Hulk's lids fluttered, and confused panic flashed behind them. Too late Loki realized his mistake. A giant fist smashed into him, and there was a crashing and a splintering and then he was spinning, spinning, spinning… away into blackness…

Bright sunlight and blue sky blinded him. A roof exploded beneath him, pain battering him on all sides as he covered his head and waited to finish crashing through whatever he was crashing through. And then…

… it was over.

He lay still for a moment, letting the dust settle, waiting for his body to come back to its senses and register any injuries. The stillness pounded in his ears. His heart pounded in his chest.

"Oh, not again."

Loki's threw open his eyes.

He knew that voice.

The man could help, if anyone could - he had to! Loki put his hands beneath him and pushed himself onto his knees, ignoring the sharp pains of his limbs, and slipped and scrambled through the rubble, climbing out of the hole.

Strange watched him warily, his face as unreadable as ever, his thoughts his alone. "You."

Loki pushed his hair back and tried to catch his breath. "I don't have much time to explain myself," he gasped. "But I need your help."

"You're supposed to be dead." Strange deadpanned. "So _please_ explain yourself."

Loki took a deep breath, and then dove."Thanos is coming. Asgard is in ruins, and Thor and I and our people managed to escape on a ship and were coming here, but Thanos attacked us and killed most of who is left. He has two of the Infinity Stones already and he know that Earth has two more. He is _coming_, and …"

"Let me stop you there." Strange said, raising a hand and frowning. "You said Asgard was destroyed, and Thanos attacked your ship?"

"_Yes_." Loki stared at him, brows pulled together in frustrated desperation and confusion. "My _brother_ is back there and probably…" he couldn't finish. There was no way in the Universe the mad Titan would spare Thor. His brother was dead by now. Tears stung his eyes, but he bared his teeth and forged on. "You have no time, wizard! He is a force unlike anything you've ever seen…"

"Actually, we have seen, and we've defeated." Strange said, relaxing and crossing his arms.

"What? No," Allfathers, was the man truly this dense? "You're not _listening to me_…"

"Thanos did come to Earth. Six years ago." Strange watched him, waiting for his reaction. "The Snap happened. But last year the Avengers found a way to go back in time, and they undid the snap, and killed Thanos. It's over."

Loki blinked, his mind reeling. His heart was still pounding at a furious pace, urging him to _hurry, fight, flee, warn them!_, but Strange was still staring at him and waiting for him to react, and none of what the man had said made any sense. He shook his head. "I just came from the Statesman. Heimdall sent the Bifrost and it caught me and your green monster and sent us here."

The wizard nodded. "Banner. He crashed right where you did, six years ago." He looked up at his ceiling, the hole gaping and ragged. A piece of plaster fell. "Perhaps I should make this an open skylight." He mused.

He had to think. Loki remained where he was, frozen, his mind racing.

Hulk had woken during their journey, and smashed him out of the Bifrost, sending him careening through the cosmos.

Something similar had happened with Hela, and he and Thor had crashed onto Saakar weeks apart. Perhaps being forcefully ejected from the Bifrost sent one not only through space, but through time? Had the same thing happened now? Had his ejection from the Bifrost sent him six years into the future?

"Thor told us what happened with Hela. And on the Statesman." Strange said, watching him quietly, his voice low. "I'm sorry."

That got his attention. "Thor's alive?" he breathed.

Strange nodded. "He is. And the remains of your people have made a home here, in Norway. A small village right now called New Asgard."

He had to see his brother. He had to see for himself, because his instinct kept telling him to flee, to fight, that Thanos was coming… norns, it had only been minutes ago that Thanos had been torturing his brother, surrounded by the bodies of their people.

How could any of this be true?

"I should warn you, Thor's not the same brother you knew."

Fear gripped Loki's heart. His body tensed. "What happened?" he whispered.

"Everything that happened… we have a term for it. PTSD. You ever heard of it?"

"No."

"Post traumatic stress disorder?"

"You mean trauma-bound?" Loki scoffed. Battle and hardship had never traumatized his brother.

But Strange was looking at him… well, strangely. Almost gently. Sadly. A sick feeling began to creep into his middle, even as his mind still tried to deny it.

"Weren't you?" the wizard asked.

Loki's mouth thinned. "Thor's not me." He hissed.

"No." Strange agreed. "He's not."

Loki strode forward, face jutted out, sharp and angry and tired and still feeling the need to fight, to flee. "What happened to my brother?!"

"After the Snap he disappeared to Norway with the rest of the Asgardians. The remaining Avengers lost track of him for a few years, but when they did find him, he was holed up in a shack, drinking and… well. Lost. He couldn't even hear your name or Thanos's name without falling apart."

The image made Loki suck in a breath. Thor was one of the strongest people he knew. He'd always smiled, always gotten back up, always had this unquenchable joy and optimism, no matter what happened. He'd just rolled with the punches, and when one thing didn't work he tried another.

"Take me there."

"Your brother's not there."

"Then take me to wherever he is."

"He's at Stark's home." Strange looked at him knowingly, and then made a gesture with his hands and circled his hand round and round. A sparking orange ring appeared in the air, and then suddenly the center of it disappeared and Loki could see a kitchen filled with people. "Come on."

Loki leaped through, and Strange followed.


	4. Chapter 4

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER FOUR

* * *

The Avengers went to the scene of the accident and did what they could to help. Banner helped lift and turn the car, and clear away the heaviest pieces of wreckage, while Thor pulled the electricity from the lines and directed it into himself, making it safe for the emergency crews to clean up the wires. Steve and Clint helped clear things up, and Tony talked to witnesses and gathered cell phone videos and pictures from people.

It was a long night.

Fury showed up. He was on the phone with someone very angry and very full of himself, which did not go over well, and when the one-eyed man finally hung up he was grim.

"That was Rudderow." He said.

"Who's Rudderow?" Thor asked, leaning on Stormbreaker.

"The new government d-bag we have to deal with." Tony muttered. "He's trying to get the Accords reinstated, with some 'minor adjustments'."

"I do not understand. I thought the Accords were still in effect?"

"Not after everything what happened." Steve answered. "People wanted heroes who could protect them more than heroes who were controlled."

"Funny how that works." Clint snarked.

"Rudderow isn't one of those people." Fury stated, his voice firm. "He's trying to use people's fear of outer space beings to his advantage. After Thanos, people are a little paranoid."

A muscle jumped in Thor's jaw and he looked down, toeing the ground. Banner put a hand on his shoulder.

"Right now he's managed to put a bounty on this woman. I would _suggest_," he turned his eye meaningfully on all of them. "That we catch her first."

"Yes, sir." Steve said.

They returned home long after breakfast and closer to lunch. They were all hungry and subdued; this was not the friendly get-together and catch up visit any of them had envisioned.

"I'll make pancakes. Anyone want pancakes? I'm making pancakes." Tony said, grabbing flour and a bowl out of cupboards.

Thor moved silently to the counter and the coffee maker, and began preparing a pot.

"Any of you guys recognize this woman?" Steve asked, throwing up the images Tony had collected into the hologram over the table.

"Nope." Clint said, buried in the fridge.

Thor pushed the button on the coffee maker and turned, his brows in their now-permanent frown. He stared at the floating images, the red hair, the feathered cloak, the brilliantly colored eyes. Something clenched in his chest, as if an age of painful yearning and grief had met its cause. Tears pricked the inside of his eyes and he blinked, clenching his teeth.

Why couldn't he _remember_? What was this?

"Hey, Point Break." Tony's voice was low as he quietly mixed up the batter and turned on the burner under the griddle. "You okay?"

Thor swallowed. "I don't understand."

"You know her?"

"I've never seen her before in my life. I would swear to it. But…"

"Same thing as those wolves, huh?"

Thor bit his bottom lip.

The crackling, sizzling sound of batter meeting oil and a hot surface filled the air. The smell was delicious, and made everyone's stomach rumble.

"Whoever she is, she's powerful, and dangerous." Banner said, sitting down carefully on the reinforced chair Tony had for him. It creaked under his bulk, but held.

"There's been no sightings of her anywhere else?" Steve asked, swiping his finger through the air, flipping through the images and videos.

"Nope." Clint shook his head.

"When are Pepper and Morgan returning home?" Thor murmured.

"They'll be at Pepper's parents the whole week." Tony answered, flipping the pancakes. "Probably a good thing. Want blueberries in these? I want blueberries. Wonder if we have any blueberries."

He opened the fridge and began shuffling things around.

The air began sparking in gold and orange, circling round and round. Clint grabbed his bow and Banner leaped to his feet, but they all relaxed when they recognized one of Strange's portals.

Except it wasn't Strange who stepped through.

It was Loki.

Looking exactly the same as the day he'd died.

No one moved. No one breathed.

Strange stepped in after Loki, and the orange sparking portal closed, but no one seemed to notice. Loki was wild, bruised, sweaty, scuffed, dirty, his face pale and his eyes wide with fear and hope.

"_Thor_." He breathed, sagging relief in his voice.

Thor was white. His eyes were big and full of the panic that had been his near-constant expression just over a year ago. Tony moved towards him quickly, putting the carton of blueberries on the counter, recognizing the look and not wanting a repeat of _anything_ from a year ago. "Thor…"

"I need some air," the blond warrior said weakly, his skin turning grey with sick, and he turned and rushed out of the house.

"What the _hell_?" Clint gritted, moving slowly and carefully towards his bow.

"Relax, he's safe." Strange said, waving a hand at them.

"Loki?" Banner rose to his feet, staring and staring. "How did you… I mean, you _died_…"

"No, I got flung out with you on the Bifrost and you, you dimwitted avocado, punched me out of it and flung me through the cosmos to the here and now." Loki snarled, but his eyes were dismayed and blinking after his brother's retreating form.

"What?" Banner exclaimed.

Loki, for once, didn't want to bother with words. He strode to the table, past the guarded and wary Captain America and Hawkeye and Iron Man, and touched the holographic images. They morphed, and showed his memory in glaring, 3d color. The battle, the Hulk and Thanos fight, his double taking his place, the Bifrost taking him from Thor, Hulk panicking and punching him into kingdom-come, and his arrival at Strange's house.

Then he pulled his hand back, and the holograph went dark.

"Well." Tony cleared his throat. "I would love to know how you do that. And… that explains a few things."

"I still have some questions." Clint said, relaxing but still wary. Loki didn't blame him, not after what had happened between them.

"I'm sure you do." He said, and glanced at the still open door and the snow blowing in through it. "But right now I must have words with my brother."

Strange stayed to answer the flurry of questions and to calm the excitement his sudden presence had made, but Loki walked out onto the porch, closed the door behind him, and followed his brothers footprints in the snow. The snow crunched under his feet, and the cool air was bliss on his already healing bruises and over-heated skin. He followed the trail into the woods, around trees, over rocks and roots, his steps quick and nimble, and he soon began to hear his brother's voice mumbling ahead of him. A moment later he'd drawn close enough to see him, digging in the pockets of his hoodie, his hands shaking, dragging out a pill bottle and struggling with the lid.

"It's just wishful thinking. He's not here. You know he died for real this time, and he's not coming back. You know that. No more resurrections this time. No more resurrections. No more tricks. He's dead." Thor stopped and growled, his trembling interfering with his attempts to open the medication. "Come on! Please!"

"Thor?" Loki called softly.

Thor started, jerking back with a cry of alarm, the orange bottle falling into the snow.

"No!" Thor declared hoarsely, waving his hand and turning away. "No, you're not real. You're just a hallucination caused by drink and grief. I stopped seeing you." He laughed, but there was no humor in it. "A long time ago. I'm fine now. I'm fine."

Loki stared at his rambling brother, listening to his words and watching the half-crazed look on his brother's face, the crumpling and the grief that he was hiding with a smile and the words "I'm fine." He stared, and took in his brother's appearance. The long hair, half-combed and pulled into a messy ponytail. The coarse stubble, a shadow of the beard he'd once had. The Midgardian clothing, ripped jeans and large zipped grey hoodie. The softer bulk of his body, strength still there but the impressive physique softer, much softer, though his strength could be seen beneath it. The lines on his face, the weathered, haggard set to his eyes and mouth.

Loki's heart broke.

"The future has not been kind to you." He murmured.

Thor's laugh was startling, as if he'd just said something incredibly funny, but there were tears standing in the blue and brown eyes.

When had he gotten a new eye?

"Go away."

"Thor," he stepped closer. "It's me."

"No it's not." Thor shook his head, not looking at Loki, looking everywhere _but_ at Loki, at the trees and the sky and the snow, still smiling with false humor. "Loki died. I remember. I was there. Thanos killed him, snapped his neck. No resurrections, remember?"

"Thor…"

"Piss off, ghost!" Thor shouted, his voice hoarse, his teeth clenched and his eyes glimmering. His hands were fists at his side, his feet spread in a fighting stance, and lightning began to flicker in his eyes and over his form.

Loki froze.

"I mourned you." Thor whispered, his eyes boring into Loki's. "I let you go. I finally, finally let you go. Why do you still torment me?"

"I'm not dead, Thor." He said again.

"Yes you are! I heard your neck snap! I saw… I held… damn it!" Thor turned away, his face twisting in anguish, and he began to paw desperately at the snow, closing his hand over the pill bottle, and he resumed his attempt to open it, succeeding this time. He poured two pills into his hand and dry swallowed them, closing his eyes and tipping his head back with a grimace, and then he sat there and rocked, to wait for them to kick in, tears pouring down his face.

Loki didn't know what to do, but for the first time in his life he knew he had to understand what Thor had gone through. Not as a list of events, but what he'd experienced.

If he was going to stand by his brother's side, he had to do this.

He'd never done this in the past, too full of his own pain, too afraid of finding out he was wrong, of finding out that he was _right_ and that he really was unwanted, but now there were no such thoughts.

He marched towards him, green eyes sharp and hard, mouth thin. Thor startled and scrabbled back in the snow, moaning and squeezing his eyes shut, but Loki was quick and he crouched and slapped his palm against Thor's forehead.

_Desperation. Pain. Hope as the Bifrost shot through, hope that his brother had taken the way out. Grief as his friend was killed for it. Horror when his brother stepped out. Anguish. Screaming inwardly. _

_Space. Death. Surrounded by his dead companions, dead friends, dead everything. _

_A chance to make it right. A burning star couldn__'__t hurt him anymore than he already hurt. It would be a welcome relief, to feel anything else. _

_Vengeance. Power. Anger. Raw revenge. Then horror, guilt, and failure. _

"_You should have gone for the head.__"_

_Misery. Numbness. Motions, collecting the slain, searching for the Dusted. Recording their names. Finding his people__…__ should feel joy, relief, but there is no heart left to rejoice. Only emptiness. A hole. He found a hole, he found something to drown the voices of those he__'__d dusted, those he__'__d failed. Drown them all. Drown the ghosts that visited, that he saw, that he dreamed of. Learn Midgard__'__s games __–__ distract, distract, distract. Cry. Nightmare. Drown. Distract. Eat. _

_He can__'__t look in the mirror. Hates what he__'__s become. Hates himself. _

_Ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated when former friends find him and see him. Not Thor, God of Thunder. Just Thor, fat slob, wasted fool. _

"_You should have gone for the head.__"_

_A chance. A hope. Panic and fear, what if he fails again? He__'__s already failed, he__'__s too weak now, hasn__'__t kept himself strong enough to do anything. But it__'__s okay, Mother says he doesn__'__t have to be his life, he can just be himself. Mjolnir still loves him. Mjolnir still answers. _

_That Person-Who-Won__'__t-Be-Named came back. Came back to ruin their victory. _

"_You should have gone for the head.__"_

_He__'__s not strong enough this time. _

_The Man of Iron __–__ Stark __–__ the brave one, the best one __–__ he__'__ll die. Sacrifice, loss, more death __–__ but he__'__s still Asgardian. He can do this one thing. _

_Throws himself. Wraps his arms around the Iron Man, holds his friend in his arms, against his bulk, won__'__t let go. Absorbs all that he can, screaming from the fire, burning from the inside out, worse than the Statesman torture, worse than the star, worse than the snap. Let__'__s Tony do the snapping, while he holds on and shares the burning recoil of power. _

_He__'__s dying again. But he wakes up. _

_The sun is shining. _

_But it isn__'__t shining on THEM. _

_Everyone else wins. Everyone but him. He doesn__'__t get back anything. Doesn__'__t win anything. He__'__s still lost. _

_He cries. _

_They won__'__t let him drown. They won__'__t let him hide. They help, they heal, they stay. _

_He gets better. _

_He travels. _

_Galaxies, planets, adventures. Snarky new friends, sharp tongued, so familiar and comfortable. He likes the morons. He knows snarky. He knows sharp tongued. It__'__s comforting. _

_He__'__s still alone. _

Thor fell backwards in the snow, turned over, and was sick.

Loki wanted to be sick. Wanted to stab Thanos again and again. Wanted to cut to ribbons all the forces in the universe that had harmed his brother so much, reduced and broken him into such unrepairable pieces.

Of course, then he would have to destroy himself, too.

Thor's eye crackled white through the tears and he roared, drawing back his fist, but Loki stood his ground, prepared himself… and caught Thor's hand.

The lightning went out like a flame blown out, and Thor stared at him, pale and shaking, his fist in Loki's very solid hand.

Loki smiled sadly. "I'm here."

Thor remained frozen, staring, terror in his blue eye. "Loki?"

And then Loki, gently this time, touched his hand to Thor's forehead again and showed what he had showed the Avengers. A moment it took, a moment only, and then Thor threw his arms around him and crushed him in his iron grip, fingers closing in the back of Loki's jacket and in his hair.

"Loki…" he sobbed. "Loki…"

"I'm here." Loki whispered, holding his brother close, his fingers gripping Thor's sweatshirt, determined not to let go this time. "I'm here."

"But you didn't disappear. Your body didn't disappear. I held you… I…"

"I've gotten much better with my illusions of late. And that was to be my illusion of illusions. Good enough to fool the mad titan himself. It _had_ to be."

"You're alive." Thor choked, his throat hot and tight, his nose clogged with tears. His false eye ached in its socket. He couldn't stop crying. "You're alive." He laughed. "You're alive."

Loki closed his eyes and swallowed, hot, burning lines carving themselves down his own face.

"You can't leave me again." Thor whispered, begged, wept. "You can't, Loki." He pulled back and looked at him, face wet and messy and broken and _happy_. "I won't survive it again. I won't. I can't…"

"I won't." Loki promised, holding his brothers face. He looked deep into Thor's eyes, and willed the truth of his words into their gaze. "I will _never_ leave you again."


	5. Chapter 5

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER FIVE

* * *

Stark. Tony Stark. He was the Avenger called the Iron Man, and it was in his tower that the Avengers had once resided. They are there no more, but now she has a name, and that gives her hope.

She asks where he lives, but no one knows. How can no one know where such a great hero lives? She asks for their hall of records, and is directed to a library, but while the library has many wonderful books it contains no records at all of where people live. Her frustration was rising. These weak and stupid mortals were no help, had no organization, nothing! How could anyone call on the heroes for help if no one knew where they were? It was ridiculous.

The air was crisp and biting and fresh and bright after all those hours cooped up. Days… had it been days? It felt like it had. But it had only been one, she knew. She had curled up in a corner, behind some shelves, and slept when the lights of the building had turned off, and risen and searched the books more in the light of the next morning.

She was hungry. She was tired. She wanted to cry.

A familiar scent wafted towards her on the breeze, there on the steps of the library. Musty. Cold. Foul. Her heart hammered, her eyes widened, and she turned and saw the fog rolling down the streets. People began screaming, growls filled the air, and she turned and ran, knowing she'd never make it.

She cursed putting her feathered cloak in her bag.

The growl of the first wolf warned her and she turned and threw out her arms, crossing them. The force blew the wolf back and scattered the fog, revealing the pack of twelve wolves running her down. She reached out her hand and threw a car – that's what the carriages were called – into their midst. The pack opened and flowed around it, slowed but not stopped.

The few people out at this time of day screamed and ran for doors and cars, any place of safety, but the wolves weren't interested in them. They wanted _her_.

Something glinted on a rooftop, a figure running, armor flashing white in the morning sun, and her heart leaped into her throat.

Skadi. The Ice Queen.

The first two of the pack reached her and she sent out white blasts, aiming for their faces, hitting one in the middle of the snout and blowing half its face off, but only clipping the second one's ear. Quickly she whirled the wind under its feet while it was distracted and swept it off its feet and onto its back.

But she couldn't hope to fight them all. Not by herself. Not without her weapons.

_Forgive me._

Using all the force she had, she spread out her hands, and every car without a person in it parked on the sides of the street began to shake. Then she slapped her hands together, and they all smashed together as one, crushing half of the wolves between them. Blood and fur and foul fog erupted in the midst, and the rest of the wolves leaped and dodged and kept coming.

Her turquoise eyes began to glow, brighter and brighter, and threw out her one hand, and then another. The fire hydrants exploded, and water shot into the air, covering everything, soaking the street. She tossed her head back, arms out, and the power lines ripped free and whipped down. Sparks and electrical explosions filled the street, rocking the cars, catching the people within them, catching two more wolves and downing them completely. They lay in the puddling water, sparking and convulsing, their blue fur matted and soaked.

The last four kept coming, snarling, red eyes glowing, maws opening to reveal black tongues and razor sharp teeth.

An electrical fire was starting in one of the cars. She twirled her hands and caught it, pulling the flames out, swirling them, expanding them, then throwing the crackling, red flames straight out with a roar and a thundering. The wolves' fur went up in flames, and their howls of agony filled the air. They ran, shrieking and snarling and howling, spreading the fire, crashing into the glass windows of shops, setting the contents within on fire.

She turned glowing eyes on the white figure on the rooftops, standing still and watching the chaos below, and then she turned and ran, her feet leaving scorched footsteps in her wake.

* * *

The Avengers all arrived, including Loki and Strange, horrified at the wanton destruction. They helped as they could, rescued who they could, and stared at the pile of carnage in the middle of the street. The pile of crushed cars and mangled Ice Wolves.

"These things again." Clint muttered.

"And her again." Tony said, holding up a witness's cell phone. A video of their crimson haired woman played, showing her powers. "The people are terrified." Tony went on. "They don't know if they were saved or attacked."

"It seems clear to me that she was the one being attacked." Loki offered, staring at the screen. His brows pulled together in perplexity. "Thor…"

"Does she seem familiar to you too?" Thor asked quietly.

"Yes." Loki was astounded. "And her magic…" he closed his eyes, held out his hands, and spread his fingers. A moment later his eyes snapped open. "I know this magic."

"Whose is it?" Steve asked.

"I… I don't know." Loki frowned again, confused. He _knew_ this magic. He recognized it as clearly as he recognized his mother's.

"You too?"

"Wait… what?" Loki glanced up at the Captain and then looked at his brother. "You?"

Thor nodded. "These same wolves attacked us two days ago, in the woods by Stark's house. That same day this woman landed in a nearby town and caused a car accident and ripped down their power lines so she could escape."

"But we _know_ her?" Loki insisted, though his gaze was uncertain and confused.

Thor shrugged. "I… don't remember."

"Neither do I." Loki murmured, and fell into deep thought.

"This isn't helping." Banner said. "What we need to do is find her. I think that's the only way we'll get some answers."

"I agree." Steve said. "And we'd better hurry, before Rudderow gets her first."

* * *

They went back to Stark Tower.

It had been a lifetime ago that they had been there. A universe ago. But it was the one place where they had the tech and surveillance equipment necessary.

Thor sat to one side, waiting while the scientists did their magic. Clint secluded himself to go over his bow and arrows, making sure everything was stocked and in top condition. Steve was on the phone with Fury, updating him and sharing information.

He rested his elbows on his knees and pressed the tips of his fingers together, resting his mouth against his thumbs. He watched the screens. Some of them had live footage that kept switching as Banner and Tony worked, but a couple of them had constant pictures and videos of the crimson haired lady.

He stared at her. Studied her face. Studied her actions. Again and again.

"_Show me how you do that with your hands, Freya!__"_

_She smiled, her eyes glowing with humor and love, and she pulled him into her lap. __"__Do what with my hands?__"_

"_Make the air move!__"_

"_Ohhh.__"__ She adjusted him on her knee, and wrapped her arms around him to keep him balanced. __"__I can__'__t show you that. You don__'__t have the same powers as me. __But__…"__ she lifted her hand, spread her fingers up like the petals of a flower, and beautiful white sparks jumped from their tips, like firecrackers. __"__I could show you this.__"_

_He gasped. _

"_You have amazing power in you. Someday, with enough practice, you will be able to do this too.__"_

"_Will you teach me?__"_

"_Of course! I__'__ll teach you everything I know.__"_

He gasped and jerked back in the chair, rocking it dangerously. His friends turned around and Loki was already at his side, his face tight and worried. "Thor?" he was saying, smacking his cheek. "Say something!"

"Stop hitting me!" Thor snapped, breathing heavily. His cheek burned from the repeated slaps. His head hurt. It was splitting, actually, as if something had ripped in his brain. He groaned and rubbed his head.

"What happened?" Loki demanded.

"I saw her." Thor said, turning towards the screens and standing. He walked towards them. "I saw her… she was teaching a small child about her powers. She was happy." He stared at her face on the biggest screen. "Freya." He said, and turned. "Her name is Freya."

"Freya?" Loki said, standing.

"Do you know her?" Banner asked.

"I've never known a Freya." Loki insisted, but his brows were, if possible, darker than before. He spread out his hands, his thin face sharpening. "Freya? Snowy Bifrost? Ice Wolves? This all smells like Father."

"Father said he eradicated the Ice Wolves." Thor muttered.

"Yes, well, we know how truthful Father was."

"But I remember that." Thor insisted. "When I was twelve. We were sick that year, remember? And Father spent the better part of that year hunting them down. He didn't come back until he couldn't find another one."

"You're right, I do vaguely remember that." Loki mused.

"Well he must have missed some," Banner said, gesturing at the security camera screens, one of which showed a room where the bodies of the wolves were laid out. "Because these sure don't look extinct to me."

Tony shook his head, glancing at the two brothers. "So you know her? You must, since you just remembered her."

Thor shook his head, then stopped, and glanced at Loki. Loki looked back at him, his gaze steady and grim. "I think we need to check."

"Check what?" Tony asked.

"If there's a memory block." Thor sighed.

He really wished he could have a drink.

* * *

Freya ran. She ran and ran and ran, found an alley, pulled out her cloak, and flew away. She flew till the terror of flight had left her, and the magical haze had worn off, the cold sickness of what she had done and the lives she'd taken filling her veins. Then she descended, landed on the wide empty roof of a tall building, became herself again, and wept. She cried great, choking sobs, arms wrapped round her middle, trying to still the panic and misery. She'd sworn she would never take lives like that, never lose control, never give herself into her powers. She'd seen what that did to a person, and it had horrified and sickened her.

She'd been too focused on the destruction of the wolves. Too distracted by her enemy. And innocent people had paid the price.

_Monster. Murderer. Mad woman._

It took her a moment to realize the voice was not in her memory, but on the roof with her. She jumped to her feet and spun, wiping tears and hair from her face.

Skadi walked along the roof's edge, round and round, circling her. White fur covered her shoulders, and a silver helmet covered the upper part of her face, crowned at the top with silver branches that resembled the branches of a snowflake. Her silver armor flashed white in the sunlight, the white fur wrapped round her forearms and round her knee-high boots blinding.

"It's what they're saying about you, isn't it? I told you before, Freya," she said sadly. "They'll never accept you. You'll always be apart from them. You'll always be alone."

She shook her head, sniffing, her eyes hot and her chest filled with boiling anger. "You're wrong." She growled.

"Why do you keep fighting me? I'm just offering you a place at my side, as one of my beloved Huntresses. Well," Skadi glanced to the side and sniffed. "My only Huntress, now."

"What, the last fourteen hundred years didn't go as you planned?"

Skadi scowled. "Don't mock what I've suffered, Asgardian Giantess. You know nothing of what's happened. But you will," she began walking again. "You'll know soon enough how little they cared for you."

Her heart caught in her chest. Freya swallowed hard. "Cared?"

"Oh," Skadi glanced at her, eyes wide open. "Didn't you hear? Your home is gone, burned and crumbled right out of the sky. You are quite alone now."

"No!" Freya shrieked, her eyes burning with tears again. "No! You're lying!"

"Am I? Then go ask. And see how much the survivors care for you."

With those words, Skadi whipped her arm around, caught a flurry of snow, and disappeared.

Freya caught her cloak in her hands, threw out her arms, and ran and leaped off the roof. She flew and flew.

It was time to break into Stark Tower.

There must be something there to help her.


	6. Chapter 6

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER SIX

* * *

Loki and Thor sat across from each other, cross legged, facing one another. Thor took a deep breath, and gazed at the face of the man in front of him. A calm filled his chest and his mind, a calm he'd not felt for years and years. A lifetime. He sank into it, breathed deeply, and soaked in the green of his eyes, the sharp features, the quick, intelligent gaze.

Loki caught his stare. "What?"

He didn't know what to say, so he just smiled, slowly, softly. Loki looked at him a moment longer, and something in his eyes softened.

"I'm so sorry." He whispered.

"For what?"

"Your pain."

The honesty of those words hit him deep inside, where his wound was mostly healed but still tender. "It wasn't your fault."

"I'm sorry, just the same. And yes, much of it was." Loki looked down. "Perhaps if I had told you who had been controlling me, how I was being controlled… much of this could have been avoided. Instead I reveled in my own misery and sense of injustice."

"Loki." Thor put a hand on his shoulder, and reluctantly Loki looked up at him. "You are here now. When I thought I had lost everything in the world that was dear to me, and here you are." He shook his head. "Can we not start again?"

There was a pause, then a slow, relieved smile crossed Loki's face. "I would like that very much." Then he shifted and straightened, and Thor let his hand drop back into his own lap. Loki lifted his hands and spread his fingers on either side of Thor's head. "Now, let me see that mind of yours."

For a moment there was nothing, only the quiet breaths of the two brothers, Loki's eyes closed in concentration. Then his brows pulled together, his chin turned to one side, Thor grimaced, and their breaths grew more labored. Loki's frown deepened, his jaw clenching. Sweat stood out on Thor's face. Loki bared his teeth, the knuckles of his fingers turning white.

Thor gritted his teeth, clenching them tighter and tighter, wrinkling his face, squeezing his eyes shut, his breaths coming faster and faster, his hands clenching and unclenching desperately, and then he cried out in pain.

Loki immediately let go, and Thor slumped forward, shaking, his back heaving as he fought for breath. "Thor?" Loki grabbed his shoulders, his eyes sharp with worry. "Are you all right?"

"I think so." Thor rasped, and sat up, blinking, his breath coming easier. "What was that? It felt like you were tearing out my brain."

"I was trying to access your memory." Loki said, staring at him as if he had a spider on his face. "But I could not. Thor, what do you remember before you were twelve?"

"You using my love of snakes against me."

"What more than that?"

Thor frowned, shook his head, and closed his eyes, trying to make his aching head think. "Um… bedtime stories with Mother and Father. Heimdall showing us the Bifrost."

"What more?" Loki insisted.

"What do you mean, what more?" Thor asked impatiently.

"You have a good memory, as do I. But if I think about it, of the time when I was eight and you were twelve, I find I do not remember much more than you. Do you not think that strange?"

"Maybe?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "Thor… you dunce, how much do you remember _after_ you were twelve?"

"I remember how boring our lessons were. I remember playing with our friends, and going on adventures, and the fort we made in Mother's garden, and swimming at the beach…" Thor stopped. He looked at his brother's knowing gaze.

Loki nodded. "It is the same for me. I remember as you do, little bits of Mother and Father telling us stories, Heimdall showing us the Bifrost. But after I remember so much more. Days and days, moments and years. Complete days. Complete moments. Not little snippets. Thor," he leaned forward eagerly. "You said 'the fort we made'. Do you remember making the fort? In Mother's favorite tree?"

"Of course I…" Thor stopped. "No," he said slowly. "No, I don't." He looked at Loki and felt dread spread throughout his insides. "Loki, what happened to us?"

His brother was grim, but a light was in his brilliant green eyes. "I don't know. But I mean to find out."

* * *

She landed on the roof. A dangerous fire was burning in her veins, clouding her vision. Her fear and grief and anger were reaching an alarming level, and she paused for a moment to calm herself. She could not lose control.

She could not.

This building was more advanced than any building she'd yet come across in Midgard. She walked across its top, looked down over the edge, and heard a door open.

"Put your hands up where we can see them!"

She turned, and saw strange being spread out in front of her. A great green monster, a tall man with a shield, a man of red metal, an archer whose eyes were sharp and full of steel.

Her head tilted, her crimson hair blowing violently in the wind this high up. "I thought this place was deserted." She called.

"So you were going to break in and take it over?" The metal man asked, aiming his glowing hands in her direction.

She pushed her hair out of her face. "Are you the Avengers?"

The man with the shield spoke. "Who's asking?"

They were. They had to be. She'd come across no one else like them, such a motley group. "I've been looking for you. I need your help."

"Yeah… don't take this the wrong way, sweetheart, but I don't buy it." The archer said. "We've seen your work."

She grimaced. "Please. There's someone after me, and she's dangerous. She's already attacked me with her beasts. I'm just trying to get home."

They shared a look.

"Look, you've done a lot of damage in the last couple of days." The shield man said. "Why don't you come with us and answer some questions. Then we'll talk."

* * *

They watched her on the security screen, pacing back and forth in the room they'd put her in. "What do you think?" Banner asked, crossing his big green arms.

Steve chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Well, someone sent those wolves, and it definitely wasn't her." He said. "I mean, we know that."

"So there's someone else out there?" Clint groaned. "Great."

"Whoever that other person is, this lady here has a lot to answer for. You saw what she did." Tony said, pointing at the screen. "On the other hand, we also saw what those wolves did. So…"

"Either way she can give us some answers." Steve said grimly.

Thor and Loki met them in the hall leading to the cell rooms. Tony slowed and fell to the back of the group and matched his stride to theirs. "How'd it go?" he murmured.

"Not good." Loki said tightly.

"Our memory has definitely been blocked," Thor said, his voice low. "Something from when we were children."

"Can you break through?"

"I tried." Loki said. "But it's strong. Removing it could be…" he glanced at Thor. "Dangerous."

"That sounds… ominous." Tony said, shoving his hands in his pockets as they walked. He was silent for a moment, then he sighed. "Listen, Point Break…"

Thor flinched.

Tony's shoulders dropped a little. "I'm sorry." He murmured. "What I said before. That was… _awful_ of me."

Thor gave Tony a quick smile. "It's okay. Forget about it."

"No, see… it's not okay. And don't do that." Tony stopped and put a finger to Thor's chest. The three of them stopped and Thor looked at him with a blank expression. "Don't smile at me, don't tell me it's okay. You _do_ that, remember? You smile and shrug it off and pretend you're okay and it just builds up in you. I know. I do it too."

Loki glanced between them, and took a step back.

Thor dropped his gaze and chewed on the inside of his cheek. Then he nodded.

"Bad things don't happen every time you come see us, bad things happen all the time, that's just how the world works. Hell, I had a guy I thought of like a father try to kill me and take over my company. I had another guy try to copy my design for the iron man suit and make crazy electric whips. None of that was you, and neither was the Chitauri or the fight between me and Cap or That Guy. Especially not That Guy. He was coming no matter what any of us did."

Thor's hands clenched and unclenched, his palms growing damp and cold.

"My point is I was out of line." Tony pursed his mouth, his eyes pinched with regret. "I do that. A lot. 'Specially when I'm scared or stressed. I'm sorry."

Thor blinked quickly, swallowed, and then nodded. "You are forgiven. I know it was not meant." He looked up, and this time his smile was genuine. "I learned long ago to ignore someone's rude comments."

Loki frowned and dropped his mouth open. "Hey!"

Tony laughed and clapped Thor on the arm.

* * *

She was waiting for them, standing behind the glass of her room.

Thor and Loki stared at her. They thought they had recognized her in the blurry cell phone photos, but in person it was more. Now, more than ever, they _knew_ her, even if they could find nothing in their memory to corroborate that fact.

As they approached she eyed them all warily, hopefully, until her eyes fell on Thor and Loki. Then she stared.

Her turquoise eyes were almost blinding with the brilliancy of their color, and they were huge, staring at them, slowly tipping her head to one side, as if she too recognized them but was not sure.

"What's your name?" Steve asked.

"Freya Odinsdaughter."

The team shared a look. Mostly they looked at Thor and Loki. Then back at her.

"Why are you here?" Steve asked.

"I don't know." She said, her voice tight with strongly controlled emotion. "I was attacked, in another realm, on an outing with my two young brothers. The Ice Queen, Skadi, a Giantess of unknown origin, attacked us. We tried to escape through the Bifrost, but she followed after, and I struggled with her. I was thrown out. When I landed, it was here, in your world." Her face fell. "I am sorry for the damage I have caused. It was not intentional."

"Where are you from?"

"Asgard."

Steve lifted an eyebrow, and tilted his head. "Why have we never heard of you before? Or this Skadi?"

"When I entered the Bifrost, it was the year 530, your time." She said, and her eyes glimmered, but she blinked them quickly. "I don't know how I came to be here. I think, when I was thrown through and out of the Bifrost, I was somehow flung through space and time. It has been so long for your world I'm not surprised you know nothing of me."

"Then perhaps you can explain why we know nothing of you either." Loki said coldly, stepping forward, his green eyes sharp and blazing. "For we are Odin's Sons and we know nothing of you."

Her eyes widened. She drew near to the glass, her hands pressing to it, her eyes staring at him and Thor as if she could see through their very souls. She stared for long moments, long and hard, her gaze flickering between the two brothers. Then her face crumpled and tears filled her eyes and fell in shimmering lines down her cheeks. "Loki?" she gasped. "Thor?"

The atmosphere changed. Everyone tensed. Everyone looked between Freya and the two brothers.

"Loki! Thor!" She laughed, weeping, her hands splayed on the glass. "Is it you? She didn't get you! Thank the norns! Where's Mother? Where's Father? What happened?"

"Lady," Loki said again, his expression unchanged. "As I've said… we know nothing of you."

Her face fell. The tears lost their shimmering quality, and desperation filled her gaze. "No… no, Loki, you must know me! I am your elder sister, Freya. You must remember me! We played together, you and me. I read you books. You remember how much you loved your books." Her smile was tremulous, pleading, and then she looked at Thor. "Norns… how you've grown…" She half laughed, half wept, and another shimmering line fell down her face. "I took you on my knee and showed you how to make the air dance and sparkle, remember? When you were young and your power was only just showing itself." She moved her hand towards him along the glass, her fingers spread, as if she could touch him. "Thor, don't you remember?"

"I'm sorry, my lady." Thor said, his eyes downcast and his face quiet. "You seem familiar to me, but I do not remember you."

Her face broke, and she licked her lips, her tongue touching her tears. "What of Mother and Father?" she asked, her voice tremulous. "And Asgard?"

Loki was still frowning, but Thor was staring at her, his expression sad and weary. "My father and mother, Odin and Frigga, are dead." He murmured tightly. "And Asgard is no more. Ragnarok came, and we are but a poor, threadbare remnant that is left."

The tears that trickled now came in a stream, and she closed her eyes and turned her head against the glass, shaking with silent sobs. Slowly she slid to her knees, wretched and weeping.

No one knew what to do. Banner shifted uneasily, and caught Steve's eye and jerked his chin. Steve nodded and turned to Tony and Clint. "We should…" he whispered, and the other two men nodded. They quietly filed out into the hall, leaving the three Asgardians alone.

Thor crouched in front of the glass, and pressed his hand to one of hers. "I am sorry." He mumbled, his low voice rumbling gently.

"How?" she whimpered, her voice weak with tears.

"My mother died defending my love from Dark Elves." Thor said, his voice thick with emotion. He paused and took a breath, steadying his words. "My father died from great age, peacefully, with the voice of my mother calling him home."

"And Asgard?"

"When my father died, our elder sister Hela was released from her prison. She was slaughtering our people. We had to release Surtur and bring about Asgard's doom to stop her."

Brilliant, blinding turquoise eyes were suddenly staring into his, wide and unnerving, her face white and carved like stone beneath the tears. "_Hela_?" she hissed. "She came back?"

"She is dead now," Thor assured her, frowning.

"Good." She spat.

"Why?"

"She was my sister."

Behind him Loki stiffened. Thor carefully schooled his face, trying not to reveal too much, but he wasn't sure he had heard correctly. "What?"

"Before Odin married Frigga, he was bonded to a Giantess. Angrboda was her name. She bore him two children: Hela, and me."

Thor stared at her again, at her features, trying to imagine her with different coloring. Her face was more softly lined, but if she were to have black hair instead of crimson…

"No wonder you look familiar." He whispered.

"Thor, get back." Loki murmured, his voice low and dangerous.

Slowly Thor rose to his feet and backed away, his eyes never leaving her. As he did so her face fell, grew desperate, and she splayed her hands on the glass. "No!" she pleaded. "Please! I am not like Hela. I never was. We were as different as two sisters could be. I never took part in her bloodshed, I'm not her!"

"You killed people today." Loki said, and Thor realized dimly that he had drawn his knives. "Electrocuted them in their vehicles, let the street go up in flames."

She squeezed her eyes shut and fresh tears fell. "I am so sorry. I never, ever meant to hurt anyone. My magic is powerful, it can consume me. I try not to use it, to let it out completely, because of that. But the wolves are too strong. I didn't know what else to do…"

"How can we believe you?" Loki said. "We have no record of you anywhere, no memory of you, our so-called sister. Only your word that you mean no harm."

"Surely someone remembers me!"

"If you are truly Hela's sister," Loki shot. "Then your memory was wiped away as cleanly as hers was. There is no one who remembers you, not one."

She crumpled, a small ball against the glass. Loki took Thor's arm and pulled him away, turning him from the sight, but as they entered the hall they heard her voice again, loud and clear and heartbroken:

"Skadi attacked us when you were children and she almost killed you! Now she's back! She'll want revenge! Please protect yourselves! Please!"


	7. Chapter 7

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER SEVEN

* * *

They needed to regroup.

So they sat in the common room, on the couches, and said nothing. They were silent, sitting knee to knee, lost in their own thoughts. Thor's hands lay in his lap, his head lay back on the couch, and his eyes stared up at the ceiling. Loki was the only one not sitting, choosing instead to pace, his arms folded, his face sharp and grim.

"Do you believe her?" Steve asked.

For a moment Loki did not answer. "I don't know." He said. "It could be a trick to gain our trust. Though what her angle might be I cannot guess."

"She's Hela's sister." Banner said, holding out his thick green hands in disbelief. "I mean, who would say that if they were trying to get us to trust them?"

"So you have _another_ secret sister?" Clint asked, turning his head back to glance at the pacing trickster. "You're family's messed up. No offense."

Loki's jutted his jaw, his lips thin, his eyes staring at the carpet. He shook his head in dissatisfaction. "I have no memory of her." He said, his green eyes narrow. "But she is as familiar to me as our mother. I know her magic." He glanced at Thor. "I think we need to talk to her again."

Thor sat up and rubbed his face. "I agree." He said, clasping his hands in front of him. "We need to know about those wolves and this Skadi she mentioned, and the only one who can give us answers is her." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

Steve nodded. "I think her claim to family is true." He said with a nod towards Banner, his arms crossed, his expression thoughtful and grim. "But if it is, if she and Hela are sisters…"

"Then there's a reason why she was wiped from Asgard's memory." Tony finished.

* * *

Freya sat against in the corner, her back against the wall, her right shoulder and knee pressed to the glass. Her head lay back against the wall, her eyes staring at the fan on the ceiling, the blades spinning lazily and making hypnotic moving shadows on the ceiling.

Father and Mother. Gone.

Her friends, the people she knew, gone.

Asgard. Gone.

She had cried till she had no more tears, till she'd felt like she would be sick if she cried anymore. Eventually she had laid down on the ground, curled in on herself, wrapped up in her cloak, and the tears had just run freely and silently.

They were leaving her alone, and she had tried to understand what had happened.

Those two men. Her brothers.

She knew they were, without a shadow of a doubt. She knew her Thor and Loki, knew their eyes, knew their expressions.

They had grown into such tall, handsome men. But so weathered. So sad. They had obviously suffered.

If only they remembered her.

Was it just that it had been so many years? Was that why they did not remember her? They had been young boys when she'd disappeared, after all. So young.

The fan blades made the shadows jump on the ceiling, the air blowing across her skin gently. She blinked slowly.

"You look like her." A smooth voice said, sharp edges to the words, wariness in the tone. "But you don't sound like her."

She turned her head against the wall, her eyes rolling to the side. Loki stood there, his black hair long on his shoulders, his face slim and chiseled, his eyes like burning emeralds.

"You've grown up." She murmured. "And I missed it."

He tilted his chin. "Those wolves," he said. "They are supposed to be extinct. Where are they from?"

She sighed, shifted slightly, her hands clasped around her knees. "They are from the Wastes. They were native to Jotunheim, but a natural disaster, a great quake, destroyed the land they lived on and many perished. The remaining pack was found by the Ice Queen, and cared for. She groomed them and raised them to be her own hunting pack. They have served her ever since."

"I know where they came from, though the Ice Queen was nothing more than a legend. Odin hunted the wolves when I was a child. He wiped them out. I want to know how they are here now?"

"She is not a legend, she is as real as you or I. As for how the wolves are here now, I do not know. Perhaps they too chased me through the Bifrost. Perhaps Father missed a few. I don't know."

There was a long silence, her brother's mind moving, calculating."This Ice Queen you speak of," Loki said, watching her carefully. "Who is she?"

"A Giantess. No one is quite sure where she came from. She just showed up one day, roaming the wilds of the Nine Realms, but she most often frequented Asgard and Jotunheim. She made her home in the Wastes of Jotunheim. She's been called a Snow Witch, because of her powers." She looked at him, heart and limbs heavy. "Do you truly not remember me, little brother?"

His look on her grew sharp and wary, but he leaned against the glass, his arms crossed. He was tall and lean. The black he wore became him. His eyebrow raised. "Tell me more of our family connection."

She blinked slowly, and smiled. He'd always raised his eyebrow at her like that, when he wanted her to guess something, or when he was waiting for her to answer one of his clever riddles. "After Hela, there was peace for some time. Father met a lovely woman named Frigga, and they married, and had a son." The corner of her mouth lifted with the memory. "I got to be the big sister this time. Mother treated me as her own daughter, and I loved her, and I loved my baby brother. Then, when he was four years old, Jotunheim began attacking the other realms, seeking to spread its power. It went after Midgard, so primitive, so simple. It was a slaughterhouse. Father rushed to their aid, and managed to drive the Giants back to their homeworld." She smiled, looking at Loki's face, remembering. "And he found you."

Loki straightened, hands falling to his sides, his chin turning as his eyes grew black.

"You were the cutest little baby." Freya said, and laughed. "You had the roundest cheeks. Thor and I were so excited… we made it difficult for Mother and Father to have any time with you."

"What of the Ice Queen? Why does she hunt you?"

"She wanted to build her own personal army. I don't know what injury was in her past, but she went after unhappy young women, wronged women, abused women, any who had a pain she could manipulate. She gave them a place, a sense of belonging, and turned them into her own Huntresses. They were comparable to our Valkyries." She looked down at her boots, and wiggled her toes. Avoiding his gaze. "I am very strong. But my powers are – temperamental. They can take me over, so I have to stay in complete control. When I fall to them, I don't always know what I'm doing. If it was just that I think it would have been fine, but being Hela's sister –" she scoffed and shook her head. "Very few trusted me. They thought I couldn't hear, but I am not deaf."

Avoiding his gaze as she was, Freya missed the wince of Loki's face.

"Anyway, as I said, my powers make me appealing to Skadi. She wants me to join her huntresses. She's been speaking in my ear for over a year now." Freya looked up at Loki then, and she smiled, sad, and fond. "But I had you. My brothers. I had your love, and Mother's, and Father's. I didn't fall for her words."

"And then?"

"Was it quick?"

Loki blinked. "What?"

Her bottom lip shook, and she tightened her mouth, embarrassed. "When Mother died. Did she suffer?"

Shadow filled his face. Loki shook his head, glancing away. "I was not there. But I am told it was fast. A clean strike."

She nodded, pressing her lips together. Her treacherous eyes were wet again, and she blinked. "And… did they never mention me?"

Loki shook his head.

"Did they never mention Hela?"

"No."

"So _no one_ knows me?" She stared at him, angry and grief-stricken, her chest aching. "Not one Asgardian, in the last fourteen-hundred years, has mentioned my name?"

His gaze was hard. "No."

"Not even Heimdall?" she demanded disbelievingly, her voice rising a pitch in her distress. Surely, if anyone would honor her memory, it was the Gate Keeper.

"No one, my lady. Not even the all-seeing Heimdall."

"Can't you bring him here? I'm sure he could…"

"He's dead." Loki said shortly. "He was one of those we lost to Thanos."

_Your home is gone, burned and crumbled right out of the sky. _

_You are quite alone now. _

"Where is Thor?" she asked.

A shadow moved from the wall, arms crossed, face grave. He stepped into the light and stared at her.

_Go ask. See how much the survivors care for you. _

"Thor, you were twelve when this happened. Are you sure you don't remember _anything_ about me? You never heard a word about me from anyone?"

Thor shook his head, his blue eyes – once they'd sparkled with such joy and zest – dark as they gazed at her. "I'm sorry." His voice was low, so much lower than she'd thought it would be.

What had happened to change her brilliant, exuberant little brother into this grave, weary man?

"No one has ever spoken of you to us." He murmured, and his brows pulled together. "And if you are Hela's sister, then I wonder what you have done to incur the same punishment."

_See how much the survivors care for you. _

Something stilled in her. The turbulent emotions she'd felt before died, like a wind suddenly ceasing to exist. "So it's true," she murmured, her tone dead.

_You are quite alone now. _

They shifted, straightening, eyes sharpening.

"What she said was true. No one cared enough to remember me… I am truly alone."

"Lady…"

Hatred, cold and cutting and burning, filled her, flooding her limbs.

Skadi had done this to her.

Skadi had taken everything from her.

The lights flickered, a hum filling the air.

Loki tensed, like a panther, his eyes flashing as he looked at her. Thor's feet spread and his knees bent, hands flexing, mouth tight. "Freya…" he said, his low voice warning and concerned.

"Go away." She whispered. Warmth was flooding her limbs, but she felt numb.

"Whatever you're doing, stop it!"

"I don't want to hurt you." She murmured, her eyes beginning to glow.

Loki spun around and slammed his hand on a panel on the wall. Alarms began blaring somewhere.

She turned her head on the wall and looked at them, past caring, past seeing.

If she could not save her family, she could avenge them.

Everything electrical, lights, wires in the walls, switches, and computers… exploded in white fire and sparks. Glass flew in every direction, raining down on the brothers as they flew backwards and slammed into the wall, plaster flying everywhere.

She stepped over their crumpled forms, and didn't spare them a look.

A moment later they were alone. Unmoving. In the sparking, silent, ruined blackness.


	8. Chapter 8

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER EIGHT

* * *

Clint was there, bow raised and ready, turning and stepping carefully over the glass and debris. It was pitch black, except for the occasional spray of sparks, lighting the room like mini lightning strikes.

Tony and Steve entered the room silently, knees bent, feeling their way across carefully and as silently as they could towards the two unmoving figures. "Status report?" Steve breathed, training taking over, his heart pounding and his mind unfeeling and quick. His eyes flickered across the room, looking for danger, as he slipped his fingers onto a neck and checked for life.

"All clear." Clint whispered back. "She's gone."

He breathed a little easier, but not much. Loki was groaning and pushing himself to his knees, shaking his head, a dazed mixture of worry and rage on his face. "Where is she?" he hissed.

"Gone." Tony bit, his helmet retracting.

There was another groan, and Thor shifted, glass tinkling as it slipped off him with his movement. "Easy," Steve cautioned, a hand on his shoulder.

"I am fine," Thor whispered, sitting up. Glass sparkled in his hair and fell from his shirt – he'd taken the brunt of the blast. "Loki?"

A strong, pale hand gripped his arm in answer, and he sighed.

"She knocked out the whole tower." Tony said, standing up. He was the only source of light in the dark besides the showers of sparks, his suit glowing. In that glow they could see his eyes snapping with anger. "She's more of a danger to my equipment than you, Thunder Boy."

"We have bigger problems." Thor said, his voice low. He rose to his feet, and reached down and offered a hand to Loki, who accepted it, a hand on the back of his head. There was a dent in the wall, shaped like him. "She is going after Skadi," Thor went on, his voice rumbling in the dark. "We're going to have an all-out war between an Asgardian magic user and an Ice Witch."

* * *

"We need to go after her!" Banner was insisting, pacing in agitation. He'd been trapped in one of Tony's elevators till the emergency generators had kicked in, and he was looking more green and hulked out than usual.

"Not till we know more of what we're dealing with." Steve said, and his commanding, clipped tone brooked no argument. "We don't know what powers she has, or what this Skadi can do."

"We know a little bit." Clint said, indicating the monitors that had been running the photos and footage of Freya's incidents. They were dark now, fried inside from the electrical surge.

"Not enough." Steve replied. "These two are too powerful to just walk blindly into the middle of their fight."

"Your captain is right, we need to know more." Loki agreed quietly. His eyes were dark, and he stared at Thor, sitting beside him on the couch.

Thor nodded.

"We can possibly provide that knowledge." Loki went on, and his brows pulled in concern.

"You think you can get by the memory block?" Tony asked, walking towards them, grim intrigue in the lines of his face.

"Yes." Loki said. He was still watching Thor's face. "But it could cost us."

Thor stared right back, unblinking, unsmiling, and he nodded. "I am tired of the secrets." He murmured. "Whatever you find, bring it out. Anything at all."

Loki's jaw clenched, and he gave a sharp nod. He turned on the couch cushion, folding his long legs, his lips thin and his green eyes burning. Thor turned and mirrored his position, and clasped his hands in his lap. Loki lifted his hands, and paused. "Are you ready, brother?" he whispered.

The others suddenly felt like they were intruders, spectators on an intimate moment, and shifted and glanced at each other uncomfortably. They didn't actually know what was going to happen, but they could tell that it was going to be difficult even for their magical, powerful, god-like companions. Unease snaked through their hearts.

Thor nodded, holding his brothers gaze.

Loki spread his fingers and pressed them to either side of Thor's head. Thor closed his eyes, and Loki closed his, and then it was silent, except for the breathing of six people.

A pressure began to build in the air.

Loki's face was pulled into sharp, immovable lines.

Thor grimaced, hissed, his hands tightening in his lap. The knuckles grew white. They began to shake. His teeth bared, and the muscle in his jaw jumped. A groan slid out on his breath.

Loki didn't move, his mouth tightening, his fingers so tense they looked like claws, pressing, digging into his brothers head.

He was pushing against that invisible barrier that clouded so many of Thor's memories. As he did so he could feel the barrier in his own mind beginning to bend.

The magic was embedded much more deeply in Thor's mind, unsurprising, since he was older – there was a great difference in understanding and remembering between the ages of eight and twelve, such a great difference – It was deep, the edges almost fused to the walls of his mind.

Sweat was standing out on Thor's forehead, beginning to run down his face.

He dug. He pushed. A small bit of magic managed to slip under an edge, like a finger nail under a scab, and Loki began to _pull_.

Sounds of pain came out on Thor's breath.

The others were frozen where they stood, watching, tense and agitated. They didn't know what Loki and Thor were doing, but it was hurting them, a battle they couldn't help the brothers with, so they stayed where they were in frozen vigil, waiting.

Loki's nostrils flared, and it was almost like they could _see_ him make a harsh gesture, even though he didn't move. There was a _push_, and a _bend_, and then a _snap_...

And Thor _screamed_.

* * *

_Thor was so excited. Today was the day he and Loki would finally get to go on that adventure Freya had been promising them! Their first time to Midgard. A camping trip with their big sister! _

_A contingent of guards would be with them, of course, but Thor didn__'__t mind. Asmund was among them, and he was Thor__'__s favorite guard. He watched Thor__'__s door, and they were good friends. _

_It was just he and Loki and Freya! _

_Their first time spending the night away from Mother and Father. _

_Their first Bifrost trip. _

_It was thrilling. He and Loki couldn__'__t contain their grins, skipping and racing each other across the bridge to the Gate Keeper__'__s Observatory. Freya laughed and called them back, so they raced each other back to her. _

_The trip was more exciting than anything they__'__d ever done before. Freya held their hands, and the rush of wind and colors took their breath away, better than any festival ride, and when they__'__d landed on the beautiful green mountain side they__'__d laughed and laughed and laughed. _

_Midgard was huge. Bigger than anything they__'__d seen before. Bigger than Asgard, and WILD. _

_The guards made camp, and Thor and Loki ran around with delight, climbing trees and rolling down a grassy slope on mountain__, rolling faster and faster till they couldn__'__t catch their breath, landing at last in a pile at the edge of the camp and under someone__'__s foot. They ran back up and did it again. And again. _

_That night, around the fire, Freya told them the most wonderful stories. She made the flames dance into shapes and characters, animals and scenes. The smoke curled into phantoms and shadows that made them shiver with delightful fear. _

_The next day they went exploring. Freya showed them animals and birds and insects they__'__d never seen before, and raced with them along rocky paths, and answered their questions. They found a waterfall. Without any hesitation, knowing them so well, Freya shrugged off her feathered cloak, and pulled off her boots and socks. It was a race amongst them, but with her head start their sister beat them to it and she ran, her scarlet hair whipping behind her, her voice full of laughter: __"__Last one there is a Bilgesnipe!__"_

_Thor shouted in indignation, a split second later than Loki in pulling off his socks, and Loki laughed at him as he ran, quick, slim legs carrying him to the waterfall__'__s edge and leaping off into space, curling up with a whoop. Thor was close behind, and landed with a great splash and a shock of ice-cold water. When he rose up, gasping, he was met with another splash dead-center in his face, and the joined laughter of his brother and sister surrounded him. _

_It was wonderful, that afternoon, and afterwards they lay on the rocks beside the river drying in the sun, watching the clouds and finding shapes and talking and talking and talking. _

_The smell of cooking food drifted up the mountain paths as they made their way slowly back. Thor__'__s stomach rumbled, his body full of fresh air and sunlight, and he turned to walk backwards, his mouth opening to say something, but he stopped. Freya__'__s eyes had grown dark and shadowed and sharp, and her smile was gone. She looked sharply around, and her hand sought Loki__'__s. _

_Thor frowned. __"__What__'__s wrong?__"_

_"__Sh.__"_

_He hushed, and listened. He could hear nothing but the sounds of the guards' voices down the path, in the camp, and the crackling of the fires. Loki looked up at her, young face worried, but after a moment she pulled in a deep breath and smiled at them. __"__Nothing. I thought I heard something, that__'__s all.__"_

_Thor wasn__'__t so sure. He knew his sister; she had keen senses, like Mother, and he clenched his jaw, upset he hadn__'__t heard what she had. No matter how hard he tried, or how old he got, he couldn__'__t seem to sense things the way she did. _

_Loki could. He took after Mother, too, and he and Freya would often hear things before he did, or get __'__feelings__'__, and it irritated him to no end. _

_Supper was hot and ready, sizzling in the iron pans. The guards greeted them with good cheer, and handed the two princes and the princess plates laden with food. _

_Thor__'__s mouth was full of hot biscuit and meat when nightmarish things burst into camp, rushing in from one side and out the other, each one dragging a guard screaming and thrashing into the trees and rocks. The screams filled his young ears, tearing and ripping and growling and horrific shrieking echoing off the mountain rocks. The other guards were immediately on their feet, weapons drawn, armor in place, circling them as more of the creatures rushed in from other sides. They were wolves, but not like any wolves Thor had ever seen. They were so big, so blue, spreading strange fog that made it hard to see, their eyes red and glowing and horrible. Their maws gaped and their lips were curled back, showing horrifying rows of teeth, and Thor could hear Loki screaming, but he was so frightened he couldn__'__t make a sound. The battling around them was horrific, blood and gore **everywhere**, guards taking down one wolf and being ripped into pieces by another, their guts bursting and splattering over the ground. _

_Thor grabbed Loki and held him close, hunching over him, and Freya was there__…__ tall, crimson haired Freya, her turquoise eyes glowing like the Bifrost and her hands outstretched. Thor felt another sick cut of fear __–__ what if she lost control again? Where would they run? _

_But she only sent force blasts from her hands, shooting the wolves, knocking them back. _

_A guard in front of him was ripped off his feet, wolf teeth in his legs, wolf claws swiping across his thighs, opening skin and flaying muscle__…__ the guard screamed in anguish, slashing with his sword, but another wolf landed on him and the screams began to gurgle. _

_Thor curled over Loki, pushing his dark head into his chest, wrapping his arms around his little brother, hiding him, hiding his eyes, covering his ears. _

_He was sobbing. _

_It was Asmund. _

_He tried to stop his ears, to deafen himself to his Asmund__'__s dying sounds, but he couldn__'__t. _

_Freya swirled her hands, fingers spread. The flames from the fires rose and grew and roared, swirling with a dull roar, quick, fast, dashing. The Cook in the palace kitchens had warned them not to get too close to his fires, warned them that hair burns quickly and if they peeked too close their head would go up in flames before he could douse them. _

_Thor watched now as the flames engulfed the wolves, their roars twisting into howls and screams, and he wanted to clap his hands to his ears and cry. But he held onto Loki, trying to hide his little brother__'__s face. _

_He couldn__'__t look away. Burning skin and blackening muscle and flesh, peeling away from bones and skulls __–__ he was frozen. _

_A hissing, whistling sound split the air and then Freya was tackling him and Loki. His head connected and bounced on the hard ground, and then he couldn__'__t breathe, her weight crushing them. Arrows thunked into the dirt where he and Loki had been crouched. _

_Huntresses dropped from the trees, grey leather and grey masks making them seem like ghouls. _

_The remaining guards would not be enough. _

_Freya grabbed his arm and Loki__'__s, and she dragged them forward. His arm hurt but he scrambled to his feet, and then they were running. _

_Ice burst from the ground in pikes, aimed towards them, sharp as flint, and they skidded to a stop and Freya pulled them in a different direction, only to be met with more, and more, till they were surrounded. _

_A woman circled them, just outside the barrier of ice, in white fur, her silver crown catching the sunlight and blinding them. __"__Enough of this nonsense, Freya.__"__ She said. __"__It__'__s ridiculous that it__'__s come to this.__"_

_"__I will never join you!__"__ Freya snarled, her arms around them, her legs wide and tense. Her cloak partially covered them, and Thor was couldn__'__t decide if he was glad or not__…__ it blocked his gaze from the horrific sights around them, but it **blocked his gaze** and he couldn__'__t see all the dangers. He was shaking, his veins thrumming. _

_It was Skadi. The Ice Queen. _

_She scoffed and looked to one side, then turned her gaze back on them. Thor could just see her around the edge of Freya__'__s cloak, the feathers scratching and tickling his cheek. _

_"__Don__'__t you want to see what you could accomplish? Odin stifles you, Freya. You don__'__t know half of what you could do.__"_

_"__I know enough. My powers could control me, and I will not fall to that.__"_

_"__You__'__re making a mistake. Giving them the space to breathe would transform you into more than you could possibly imagine. Just look at your sister. At what she did, what she accomplished.__"_

_Thor__'__s throat constricted in fear. He knew of his biggest sister. He knew the devastation she had caused, the lives she__'__d taken, the blood she__'__d spilled. She was nightmare become reality. The Valkyries had all died when he was six, trying to stop her. His father had almost died. But he'd won. _

_If Freya did that too__…_

_But Freya__'__s heart was governed by love. She was good, and she loved them, and he felt her tense around them in protection. _

_"__If you thought to tempt me with that, you__'__re gravely mistaken.__"_

_"__I am offering you a place by MY side.__"__ Skadi hissed. __"__As the captain of my Huntresses. Your powers__…"__ her cold eyes ran over Freya, and she pulled in a breath and released it, cold fog dissipating before her mouth. __"__Are spectacular.__"_

_A roar filled the air. The air itself shimmered, splitting, and then it shrieked and colors exploded around them. Thor__'__s stomach dropped to his toes and then flew up into his throat, and he and Loki clung to each other, and to Freya. She held them, her strong, muscled arms safe, and they knew it was going to be okay. She had saved them. She always did. _

_A hand of pure ice caught his foot, and he was torn from her grasp, down. Down. _

_Thor cried out, kicking, the sparks of his fledgling power crackling through his veins, but they did little more than twinkle across his fingers. Skadi laughed, and he screamed, so frightened, the face of the witch inches from his, her white hair whipping in the wind and in his face, her blood-colored mouth widening in a grin that made his insides churn and boil. _

_"__Hello, little prince.__"_

_A force hit into her, dislodging her grip on Thor, and then another hand __–__ hot and full of strength __–__ caught him and threw him up. He zipped through the colors, flailing, flying without control. He saw Loki above him, reaching down for him, face pale and tear stained and green eyes wide, and he caught Loki__'__s hand and they threw their arms around each other, tumbling through the colors together. _

_"__Freya!__"__ Loki cried, and Thor followed his brother__'__s gaze, and looked down. _

_Their sister was fighting, her eyes full of fire, her lips pulled back in fury. They were moving too fast for their eyes to follow, blades flashing, forces blasting, ice stakes zinging past them. One caught Loki__'__s shoulder, tearing through the shirt and scratching his skin. Another almost went through Thor__'__s face, but he jerked back and it grazed his cheek. _

_The two woman struggled, and Skadi was bleeding, but then she managed to throw Freya against the edge of the Bifrost and hold her there, the color fracturing and splintering like glass. _

_Loki was screaming for her in his ear. _

_Freya clawed at Skadi, nails raking her face, finding purchase in her leathers, swinging her around with a roaring cry. _

_The Bifrost shattered. Dark void sucked Skadi through, and Freya threw out her arms for purchase, eyes flying up to theirs, and then she was gone. Sucked away too. _

_Gone. _

_Thor was screaming. He crushed Loki to his chest, 'protect, protect' thrumming through his veins, but he was crying and his throat was raw. _

_They fell into the Observatory. Their father caught them, his arms large and strong, his body solid, his low voice rumbling. Loki was curled up in a ball, crying, huddled in the embrace of one of Odin__'__s arms. Thor kicked and pushed against the second arm that held him. _

_"__Freya!__"__ he shouted, tears on his face. __"__Freya! Freya!__"_

_"__Heimdall,__"__ Odin said sharply, his face tight, his arm tighter around his struggling son. _

_"__I cannot see her, my king.__"__ Heimdall__'__s voice rumbled quietly. __"__She is gone. The void has taken her.__"_

_"__No!__"__ Thor yelled, pulling at his father__'__s arm, trying to get free. Sparks still burned through his veins and sparkled across his hands. He could still hear screaming and growls and ripping and the Bifrost shattering__…_ _"__Sister__…__!__"_

_Their mother__'__s voice was there, now. Frigga had arrived, and she gathered Loki to herself so that Odin could contain Thor. _

_"__Father, please!__"__ he sobbed. __"__The guards__…__ Freya__…"__ he couldn__'__t breathe, choking on his tears, bile rising into his throat. __"__My sister!__"_

_But there was nothing to be done. It was too late. Tears were silent on his father's face as he held his struggling child. _

_Odin__'__s soldiers went down within minutes, armed and in the hundreds, but there was nothing left. Nothing but the ashes and ruins of the camp, the bodies __–__ or the pieces of them, bloody bones and scattered flesh __–__ and the charred carcasses of the wolves. _

_Skadi was nowhere to be found. She was gone. _

_So was Freya. _

_The funeral was silent and heavy with grief. A boat with Freya__'__s weapons and belongings, laid on a bed of flowers, was set adrift into the water. An archer sent a flaming arrow arcing through the night sky, and the boat flared and lit, the flames consuming it. _

_Wolf fur flaming and dying screams flashed before Thor__'__s eyes. _

_He and Loki slept together. Or rather, they laid in either Thor__'__s bed or Loki__'__s bed together, with the lights of their room bright. Loki was afraid of the dark, afraid of the night breeze when it blew cold in through their windows. _

_Thor shut the windows. _

_Loki dreamed of wolves and teeth. He was so afraid, but embarrassed to be so. He began to grow aggressive against any mockery, any slight, to himself or to Thor, no matter what it was. Even teasing during play began to earn his wrath. _

_Thor stopped going to his weapons training. Instead he snuck away, to find Loki, and watch from the shadows till Loki__'__s lessons were over, and then they would hide away together. He shook and shook sometimes, and couldn__'__t stop. _

_Once during his instruction - where he was just beginning to learn how to use his fledgling powers __–__ his fingers sparked, like firecrackers, like Freya__'__s used to. _

_The instructor finally had to call Eir, the healer, to calm him. _

_After that he stayed in his room, curled on his bed, next to Loki and Loki__'__s books. Frigga and Odin were with them all the time, either separately or together, but if there was any mention or reminder of Freya Thor fell apart. _

_He just wanted to be left alone. _

_He didn__'__t want to leave. He didn__'__t want to do anything. He was fine in his room, with Loki, and Loki__'__s stories. As long as Loki told him stories, or they made them up together, he didn__'__t have to think. _

_He cried. Sometimes he cried even while he and Loki played on his bed, the tears running out of his eyes by themselves while he laughed and they imagined. _

_Their mother and father looked worried. Frightened. _

_Even Loki began to look scared. _

_But Thor couldn__'__t think. If he did he saw wolf teeth dripping with blood and skin. He saw fire burning fur and flesh. He saw Asmund, heard him screaming as wolves tore his flesh and ate him while he still lived. He lost Freya, again and again, ice taking her. A blood-red mouth grinning at him. Cold hand grabbing his leg. _

_He couldn__'__t think. _

_He couldn__'__t eat. _

_Chewing made him think of the wolves. Of Asmund, and sharp teeth. _

_Finally, one day, Father and Mother came in, their expressions soft and reassuring. __"__We__'__re going to make it better.__"__ Frigga said, her smile at odds with the lines around her red eyelids. __"__We__'__re going to make it all right.__"_

_Loki looked at them, his young, almost nine-year old mind sharp, and he asked, __"__How?__"_

_"__We__'__re going to take Thor__'__s pain away.__"__ Odin said. __"__And yours.__"_

_"__You__'__re going to fix my brother?__"__ Loki asked, hope in his eyes now. _

_Odin nodded. __"__Lay down, both of you.__"_

_Loki did immediately, wiggling down on the pillows and folding his hands on his stomach. Thor followed, tucking himself close to his brother, curling his fingers over Loki__'__s arm. _

_"__Close your eyes.__"__ Frigga murmured, smiling reassuringly. _

_They did. _

_They felt their father__'__s and their mother__'__s hands on their heads, soft and warm and strong, and then a soft light filled their minds, and they fell asleep. _

_When they woke up they were in the infirmary. Eir was there, pouring hot tea into two small cups. __"__Oh good! You__'__re awake.__"__ She said, putting the pot down. She laid her hand on Loki__'__s forehead, then on Thor__'__s. __"__Your fever__'__s are gone, thank goodness. How are you feeling?__"_

_"__Fine!__"__ Loki piped, looking around curiously. _

_"__Tired.__"__ Thor mumbled, rolling onto his side. He__'__d never cared for morning like Loki did. _

_Eir smiled. __"__Yes, I__'__m not surprised. You were sick for a long time.__"_

_"__I__'__m not sick.__"__ Loki said, sitting up. His eyes were bright and rested. __"__I feel fine.__"_

_"__You stay here the rest of the morning, and if you__'__re still well you can go.__"__ Eir promised him, rumpling his dark hair affectionately. _

_"__What about Thor?__"_

_"__He was more sick than you, Loki. So we__'__ll see. Let him rest a bit more. He can probably go later today, or tomorrow morning.__"_

_"Where's Father?" _

_"He had to go hunt the Ice Wolves." Eir said quietly, watching them. "Your mother has to take care of some things for him while he's gone, but she'll be here soon." _

_"Okay." Thor said, and looked up at her. His stomach grumbled. "__I__'__m hungry.__"__ He could smell food somewhere in the room. _

_Relief filled the healer__'__s face, a deep, heavy relief, but Thor was too distracted by the smell of food to notice. __"__Cook sent stew. I__'__ll get you a bowl.__"_

_Thor turned onto his back and scrubbed his eyes, and then he peeked at Loki. His brother was watching him, toes wiggling under the blankets, his green eyes sparkling. __"__Thor,__"__ he whispered loudly. __"__We should go camping later.__"_

_Thor felt his sleepiness disappear, and he grinned. __"__Maybe Father will take us to Midgard this time.__"__ He whispered back. __"__I__'__ve always wanted to see it!__"_


	9. Chapter 9

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER NINE

* * *

Loki's head was _splitting_. Deep, deep inside his brain, deep in his heart.

But he _knew_.

That sense of not right that he'd felt since he was a small child was gone. That sense of not belonging, of different, of feeling off had vanished with the rush of memories set free.

He _had_ known of Hela. He _had_ known of his heritage. They both had; of course they did… Thor would have been there when he was brought home. Hela had been vanquished when Thor was small. But the memory had been lost to them because Freya had been there.

She'd always been there.

Removing her had removed his life.

He shuddered at what he now knew, at the memory of her desperate fight to save them. The fear he'd felt afterwards, the fear of the cold and ice that Skadi had instilled in him. He remembered how his father had been gone for most of a year, hunting Ice Wolves, hunting a rogue band of Huntresses, till every single one had been destroyed. He hadn't understood then, as a child. His father was king, and he often had to hunt dangerous creatures or stop bad people.

But now he _knew._

The Avengers were crowded around them, worry etched deep in the lines of their faces. Loki sat up, shifting on the couch cushions where he'd been carefully laid, and the shift made his head rush and pound. He groaned, and gently rested his face in his hands.

"Hey, you okay?" A giant green hand touched him, enormous fingers feeling the pulse at his wrist.

"I am fine." Loki breathed, lowering his hands and blinking.

"Did it work?" Steve asked, voice tight with controlled concern.

Loki nodded. "Yes." There was a pause, and he looked up, meeting their eyes. "She told the truth."

* * *

It took a while, but he told them what he now remembered, of what little he knew of the Ice Queen, dredging up the little information he remembered from his young years. As he did so he watched his brother with rising concern. Thor was laying on the next couch. Still. Limp. He hadn't moved once, and by the time Loki was done describing the Ice Queen's powers ("So basically she's an evil Elsa." Tony had quipped), he was frantic.

He'd remembered so much more. Understood so much more. It was amazing the difference a few years could make when one was young, but there it was. The block in his mind had been deeply imbedded, thick and fused in, never meant to be removed. Breaking Thor's block had, in turn, broken his own, but now he was afraid… oh, how he was afraid.

"He's fine," Banner insisted when Loki checked him for the umpteenth time. "I mean, there's nothing _physically_ wrong with him."

"Not that your scanners can see, no."

They were silent, glancing at each other. Loki had explained what he had done, why the blocks had been put there in the first place. "He protected me." Loki murmured, his hand on his Thor's forehead. "He hid me so I wouldn't see. I cannot imagine…" But that wasn't true. He was grown now, he had years and years of experiences. He _could_ imagine what must have happened, could imagine what had caused the awful sounds he'd heard, and he was grateful his eight-year-old self hadn't had to witness most of it.

And he'd made Thor remember.

He thought of his sister. His older, strong sister. Of the way the air bent to her forcefields, obeying her will. How she could move things with a thought, blast anything with the most beautiful white light he'd ever seen, shooting it from her hands. How he liked matching his footsteps to hers whenever he followed her through the palace, because her feet made the stone warm. Outside the grass would crackle and blacken beneath her steps. She always smelled of warm, spicy smoke.

She had died protecting them.

Hot, molten anger filled his chest, pooled down into his belly, ran out through his limbs and into the tips of his fingers and toes.

But she wasn't dead. She'd been thrown forward, just as he had, only so much farther.

She was still trying to protect them.

And Skadi was trying to take her _again_.

* * *

The mountain where they'd camped was still there. The paths were long gone, and the trees and plants were vastly different, but the waterfall was there, and the river, cut more deeply into the earth. The clearing where they'd made their camp was covered with berry bushes and weeds, empty and clean of the horrific tragedy that had happened here.

Freya crouched down and ran her hand over some wild yellow flowers, her eyes glowing still, her heart and mind calm. She supposed she should be concerned that she was so calm, but the thought left her as soon as it arrived, flitting through and away like a butterfly.

She waited.

Skadi would find her, she knew. And this time it would be on her terms.

They were away from people, where they could hurt no one.

Here… where it had begun.

It was a fitting place.

Time had no meaning to her, running as fluidly as the river behind her, so Freya did not know how long she waited before a voice spoke.

"I told you."

She turned and faced the white demon. "You did."

"Won't you come to me now? I won't turn you away. _I_ remember you. _I_ want you."

"Where have you been?" Freya whispered. They had said her animals were extinct, and they had never heard of her. She'd said she'd suffered, but it was only now that she was making her appearance.

Skadi's eyes darkened, and she lowered her arms from their outstretched, welcoming stance. "Reclaiming what was mine."

Freya waited.

"I came through ten years ago. My children, my daughters, my huntresses – they were gone. Long dead. By Odin's hands." Skadi's voice shook with emotion, with rage. "But no one remembered anything. No one knew my name, knew anything of what had happened all those ages ago. We had been wiped clean of Asgard's history, you and I, and I had nothing left. I wanted to cut out Odin's beating heart. But I was weak. I found my old home in the wastes of Jotunheim, long fallen into ruin, but I fixed it. I grew stronger. I traveled, and I found the remains of my once mighty Wolves." She smirked, her red lips twisting. "Odin was very thorough, but he missed just enough. One mating pair, hidden far. They had grown into a wild, small pack, but it was enough. And my alphas remembered me. With my help they have grown strong again, and now that you are here, and Asgard is gone, we can begin again. Together. You, my Huntress, and I – your queen."

Freya tilted her head, crimson hair slipping over her shoulder, and the corner of her mouth lifted. "Oh, Skadi." She murmured, and the light in her eyes grew, till they blinded even the Ice Queen. "I am not here to join you." The wind began to blow. Her hair danced behind her, like the flames of a great fire, and she lifted her hands. "I'm here to kill you."

Skadi's face fell, her eyes widening. "You _fool_."

"You think I would join you? It is not they who have abandoned me. It was _you_ who took me away." The light began to glow from the palms of her hands. "My brothers still live, and that is enough for me."

The shrieking, white blast streaked towards Skadi, who threw up a shield of ice. The shards burst everywhere, but behind it came spears of ice, shooting straight for Freya. They shattered against the forcefield, the air bending in front of her, and Freya ducked and rolled. A log followed the motion of her hand and flew through the air, dirt and pebbles and bark raining from it. Skadi threw up her hands, a glittering wave of ice freezing upward and catching the log in the froth, freezing solidly over it, and then stilling.

Freya smacked her hands together with a cry, and the ice wave exploded. Skadi barely missed being impaled, ducking and rolling away to the safety of a tree. She turned glittering, furious eyes on Freya, who felt the familiar warmth running through her, through her limbs, into her mind. Consuming her.

And she let it.


	10. Chapter 10

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER TEN

* * *

_Freya was crying. Sitting in her windowsill, one knee pulled up, hands clasped around it, her head back and her eyes closed. She was crying deeply, tears pouring down her face. _

_"__Freya?__"__ Thor said meekly. _

_She sucked in a breath and opened her eyes, wiping at her face. __"__What, Thor?__"_

_"__Are you okay?__"__ he walked hesitantly forward, shuffling, wanting to help but not sure how. Maybe she was hurt. He cried when he got hurt, so did Loki. He could get her a bandage, or a pack of ice. __"__Did you get hurt?__"_

_She smiled, but it was wrong, because a tear fell down her face and across her lips. __"__No.__"__ she said, __"__No, I__'__m not hurt.__"_

_"__Then__…__ why are you crying?__"_

_Her lips pressed together hard, and he was afraid he__'__d made her angry, but she just held out her hands. Without another word he climbed into her lap, and laid his head on her shoulder, hugging her. _

_"__I__'__m just sad.__"__ Freya murmured, her arms around him, warm and safe. __"__We caught Hela today. I stopped her. And Father__…__ he put her in prison. Far away. Where she can__'__t hurt anybody ever again.__"_

_Thor was quiet. He__'__d never liked their oldest sister. She__'__d always looked at him like he was little and stupid. Like she was angry with him. She hadn__'__t liked him at all, he knew that, and he was glad she was hardly ever home. He also knew she__'__d done bad things, very bad things, and Father and Mother had been sad when they__'__d explained to them that they had to stop her. _

_The Valkyries had tried. But they were dead. _

_Freya had been gone for a whole week with Father. _

_"__Did you have to hurt her?__"_

_She made a little crying sound, and her arms tightened around him. __"__Yes.__"__ She whispered. __"__I had to let myself lose control. It was awful.__"_

_Thor pushed himself up, his little hands on her shoulders, and he looked at her eyes. They weren__'__t glowing. They were just her normal, turquoise blue. __"__But you__'__re better now, right?__"_

_She nodded. __"__Yes. I am.__"__ He felt her fingers in his hair, pushing his unruly blond locks out of his eyes. __"__Father helped me.__"_

_He looked at her again, and wished she didn__'__t look so sad. __"__I__'__m sorry.__"__ He said, and tried to wipe her cheeks clean. They were dirty and wet. He licked his fingers, like Mother did sometimes, and rubbed her skin, frowning with concentration. Freya sniffed, and then laughed. _

_"__Am I very dirty?__"_

_He nodded, licking his palm and smearing her cheek. The dirt spread and wiped, and he did it again. __"__It__'__s okay.__"__ He said, tongue on his lip with focus. __"__I__'__m getting it.__"_

_She laughed again, wrinkling her nose, and then suddenly she was squeezing him and he squawked. __"__I love you!__"__ she exclaimed, wiggling him, her arms tight around him. _

_"__Squeeze hug! Squeeze hug!__"__ he cried in dramatic dismay, giggling and pushing at her shoulders. _

_She let him go, laughing, and when he was done gasping for air he grabbed her face. __"__Now hold still!__"__ he commanded, very slowly and seriously, just like he__'__d heard Father do. __"__Your face is still dirty.__"_

_Her eyes twinkled and her mouth pulled in amusement, but she pressed her lips and nodded. __"__Okay.__"_

* * *

Thor opened his eyes. Lightning crackled through his veins, pounding with his heart, stinging behind his eyes with rage and grief. His head hurt as if Thanos had the stone pressed to his temple again, pulsing and pounding with every beat of his heart, sharp like Skadi's ice shards. Memories poured through him, free of their confines, and his fingers dug into the couch cushions, trying to hang on.

Freya lifting the boards for their tree fort and holding them in place with her mind while he and Loki hammered away, nailing them in place.

Freya reading bedtime stories to them, curled up with them on either side of her.

Freya, smelling better than any fire, smoky and spicy. Walking and making designs in the field as pretty as any Bifrost stamp.

Freya.

His _sister_.

"Don't move." Loki's voice was tight and sharp, his hand the same, fingers digging into Thor's shoulder. "Just breathe, Thor. Just breathe."

He was. He thought he was…

Oh, Norns, his head _hurt_!

Someone caught his desperate, blindly-reaching hand. Something cool and wet wiped his sweaty skin, pushing his damp hair from his forehead and cheeks.

"Loki…" he gasped.

"I'm here."

"Freya…" Oh, _gods_. He clenched his teeth, hissing. How could his _thoughts_ be pulsing with his heart?

"Don't talk." Loki's voice was sharper, tighter, and his cool fingers pressed to Thor's head.

"Is he okay?"

Steve's voice. The sound of movement in the room… more than just Loki and Steve.

The cool, wet cloth wiped at his eyes and cheeks, at the tears that were in his ears. He had to fight this, had to open his eyes… because he remembered. He remembered _her_. He remembered losing her, losing his sister.

And now that woman with the bloody-red mouth, the cold creature from his nightmares, was back.

He wasn't going to lose Freya again.

He wasn't a child anymore, helpless and frightened. He was a man.

And his lightning crackled over his skin.

Thunder rumbled and boomed outside, making the walls shake. Everyone shifted and looked up uneasily, then back at the two brothers.

Thor opened his eyes, blinking, letting the lightning sear through him, burning away any ache, every pain, and he saw Loki's face above him. The green eyes were as hard and sharp as flint. "We've got to save her." He gasped, his voice hoarse.

Loki nodded. "We've found where she went."

* * *

The Bifrost carried them, singing and rushing at Thor's call, bursting upon the mountain side. The explosion gave way to others, Wolves and shards of ice and burning trees and gouged, canyoned earth and rocks bursting around them. Tony flew up, a red phoenix in the midst of the cold mountains of white ice, and Clint buried an arrow in the gullet of a wolf as it leapt, mouth gaping. Another careened off of Steve's shield, crashing and cracking into a stalagmite of ice. Hulk roared, and it echoed off of every mountain craig, shaking the air, a herald to every creature of their arrival. The response was instant, as Wolves turned and began to pour in from every direction.

The earth thundered and exploded in dirt and rocks a ways away, but they could not see through the mountainous ice shards. Knives glimmered in Loki's hands, and when one was lost in the hide of a Wolf another shimmered into being to take its place. He spun and leapt, a fluid, blinding, graceful dance, moving faster than the eye could follow.

His mother had taught him well.

Tony fought from the sky, flying here and there, darting between them, blasting the blue beasts and crashing into them, carrying them away and dropping them, impaled on poles of ice. Steve let the instincts of war thrum through his limbs, running and sliding beneath the sharp claws, his fists shattering jaws and his shield breaking limbs. Here and there a dark figure sprung and leapt, arrows flying fierce and true. The bodies began to pile up, feathered shafts buried deep.

Hulk smashed.

It had been a long time since the thunder and lightning had sung so in Thor's veins, but he did not let it go completely. Not yet. Stormbreaker was a force of its own, cleaving head and limbs, blood drenching its blade.

The creatures of his nightmares.

He remembered Asmund, the echo of his screams, and took his vengeance.

Ice rumbled and shrieked, stripping through in a million spikes, coming from far beyond. A moment later they shattered from the ground and sped back in the direction they had come from, and then a howl of wind colder than any polar gale blasted into them.

The mountainside caught fire.

One by one they heard the explosions of sap, flames rushing up, tree after tree torching.

The ice glittered around them, sharp and deadly, reaching for the sky. The ground was slick with blood and soft with the blue hides of mounded bodies.

They rushed forward, leaping from hide to hide, over the puddles, around the shards. The sky was broiling, swirling, flickering and shattering, the air shaking with rumbles. Together they all ran, spreading as they left the ice fields, circling instinctively.

The brothers did not speak, did not have to. Their legs churned the ground beneath them, running to their sister's aid, where she battled the demon of their past. Battled to protect and avenge them, as she had when they were children

But they were children no more.

The earth was cratered and blackened, glimmering with fiery coals and shards of ice. The trees were broken and flattened all around them, like grass from a great wind. Skadi swirled her snow in a terrifying tornado, round and round their sister, who was being drawn – inexorably – up into the maelstrom. Her crimson hair battered around her like flames, her eyes white and gone with power.

They had never seen her like this.

Even as she was torn up into the sky, even as the icy winds tried to toss her, a blast of force as great as any bomb poured from her hands, whining through the air, bursting and showering against the wall of ice Skadi threw up, straining and screaming.

Loki threw his blade at the same time Thor threw a lightning bolt, and the wall exploded and Skadi flew backwards.

The maelstrom snuffed out and Freya dropped, bleeding, skin purpled from a dozen wounds. Her glowing gaze turned on the fallen queen.

She was unearthly.

The earth erupted beneath Skadi, shoving her up, up, and then down again, crushing her beneath the rocks. A boulder rose up, fire from the trees pulled to it, encircled it, caught it.

Three knives sung through the air.

Lightning poured out of the sky.

The flaming boulder dropped.

Skadi swung her arm in an arc, and she was immediately encased in a solid, room-sized ball of ice.

There was an explosion, and they all fell back, skin slivered with frozen shards.

When the air stilled, the silence was just as deafening.

Thor rose to his knees, breathing heavily. He watched the crater.

Ice suddenly burst up from the ground, closing around them, lifting them high, freezing their limbs. Only their shoulders and heads remained free.

"The two princes." Her voice, weak and hoarse though it was, was mocking. She struggled to her feet, gasping for breath, hunching over her wounds, the burns and the blade buried deep in her ribs. "Odin's _brats_." She spat blood onto the snowy ground, and limped forward. "How I _hate_ your family."

"Thor." Loki whispered, his skin brilliantly, deeply blue, the raised markings of his skin beginning to glow. He turned red eyes on his brother. "The Destroyer."

Thor remembered.

But he needed an arm free.

Lightning crackled along his skin, trapped beneath the ice, straining, burning, hissing. The ice began to crack.

A flattened tree rose in the air, zooming towards Skadi as she continued her painful, limping march towards them. She threw her hand back, spears of ice exploding through it. Wood splintered and sprayed everywhere.

Freya's eyes _burned_.

Tree after tree rose. Again and again. Shattering and splintering against the ice Skadi threw back.

A pike of ice found its mark.

They heard her scream.

Thor ground his teeth, straining. His lightning sizzled, cracked, sang, shattered…

He was free.

Stormbreaker was not Mjolnir. But the weapon had never been his power. He spun it, blurring the air, sucking it, spinning it. It whirled and whirled, stronger than any current, stronger even than Skadi's own maelstrom.

The other Avengers crouched and hid, weary from the last of the Wolves, the air pulling at even them. Hulk wrapped his arms around them and grabbed hold of a piece of the mountain itself, growling with effort, his knuckles whitening.

Skadi tumbled, twirling, scrabbling, throwing her power blindly, ice and snow going everywhere. Thor made a gesture, and the entire thing tightened and rose.

He saw a lean, muscled blue form rush past him, scarlet eyes glowing with all the force of the center of the earth, and he threw up his hand.

Every piece of ice shot towards his target, fusing in its flight, cutting through the force of Thor's storm, catching the blinding lightning and fusing around it.

The noise was so great it could not be heard. The explosion so white it cut out sight.

When they opened their eyes it could have been moments or years later. But it was still, ash and snow still fluttering down. The crater was molten and black, cooling. A bent silver mask lay to one side. Blood stained, charred bits of white fur and leather blew across the perimeter.

The bits that were left were charred almost beyond recognition. One could hardly even tell it was a skeleton, burned and scattered in the frozen center.

Freya landed on all fours, free of the ice. Everything floated in the sky around them. Rocks. Ice. Trees. Dirt. Suspended.

Waiting.

Thor and Loki glanced at each other, and then began to slowly step near. Loki slowly reached out, extending a blue hand, turning his palm towards her. "Freya?" he whispered, his eyes red like the gentle flames of a hearth.

Her blank, glowing eyes turned towards him. And crackled.


	11. Chapter 11

"The Tale of the Huntress"

CHAPTER 11

* * *

"Loki." Thor hissed in warning.

Loki froze, hand outstretched.

She didn't move.

Their friends, crouched and huddled together, looked up in fear at the suspended debris, floating above and around them. The grey clouds rumbled. Banner put out his arms and hunched over them.

"Freya," Loki said gently. "It's us. It's okay. It's safe now."

She stared at him. Breathing deeply, silently.

"I remember you." Loki murmured, and a tear sparkled in his eye, then down his cheek, catching in the markings on his face. "My sister. You took me out to play in the snow, remember? You made the flurries dance for me. You didn't mind when I dumped snow down your back. You helped me shape it into a snow fort for Thor and I."

Blood dripped, scarlet against the snow, the spattering a sickly sound.

She blinked, tilting her head. Her expression flickered, the light in her eyes dimming.

Loki glanced over his shoulder at Thor with hope, his eyes beckoning him, asking him to help.

Thor took a slow step forward, but froze when her blazing eyes turned on him. His lips were dry, his head aching, paining sharply inside his skull. He felt tears in his eyes, running down his face, his chest full of a lifetime of love and loss and grief. It tightened his lungs, and Stormbreaker slipped from his hand, a wretched sob breaking from him. He felt Loki's hand on his leg, comforting, grounding.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

He dropped to his knees, and Loki's hand was on his back, pushing him forward. Her face was so pale, dirty and bloody, her hair in tangled, matted strands hanging about her face. He moved forward, slowly, afraid. But she didn't move.

Cautiously he lifted his hands, so large on her cheeks now, and he licked his thumbs, and held her face, and wiped. "Hold still." He whispered, barely getting the words out, his vision swimming. "Your face is dirty."

She blinked and sucked in a breath, shaking.

He licked his lips, wet and salty, and smiled. "But it's okay. I'm getting it."

Everything fell around them, crashing and snapping of twigs and wood and rocks and rainfalls of dirt and pebbles. Hulk peeked out from behind a smashed boulder, his eyes wide at how close it had been. The others joined him, looking around for anything else, sagging with relief.

Freya threw her arms out, closing her fingers in Thor's shirt and over Loki's hand, sobbing.

* * *

The fire crackled in Tony's fireplace, warm and golden and soothing. Everyone was draped or slumped on every chair and couch, exhausted and in a post-supper stupor. They had gone back to the Tower for medical supplies and care, but then they'd fled back to Tony's cabin, where Tony – itching with restless energy – had made a huge meal with Steve's help while Clint cut some wood and made up the fire in the fireplace. They'd all stuffed themselves, and then dropped like flies in the living room.

Freya lay on the couch, her head resting on a pillow on Thor's lap, her legs draped over Loki's. Her side and shoulder were heavily bandaged, the wound from the ice pike stitched carefully shut. A blanket was tucked gently around her, and she smiled. Thor was combing the tangles out of her crimson hair, washed and damp. The myriad of cuts and bruises all over her skin were already fading.

"I'm sorry I was gone so long." She whispered.

Loki's hand was resting on her leg, and he rolled his eyes, resting his head back on the couch and settling. "I _suppose_ we can forgive you."

She giggled, then winced. Thor paused in combing her hair, his brows knitting. "You okay?"

Loki lifted his head.

"I'm fine." She reassured them.

A smile was covering Thor's face, first small, then growing.

She squinted up at him. "What?"

"I'm just so happy." Thor whispered, so quiet they had to strain to hear. He looked at Loki, and then at her, and back and forth again, beaming as brightly as Loki could ever remember. And he understood.

They were a family again.

And this time, there would be no more secrets, no more mysteries.

And they would never leave each other again.


End file.
